Dino-Dorks and Bug-Boys
by Something-Raptored
Summary: Rex ends up going to Domino High-School, where he's reunited with Weevil. He's changed since they were both 15, becoming a shadow of his former self. Weevil's trying to figure him out, battling his own inward emotions, and the two confide in each other when horrid parents, righteous classmates, and a Friday-night party interfere in their Junior year of high-school. RxW Yaoi, Lemon!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi guys! uwu Something-Raptored/Something-Borrowed (I usually prefer the latter) here, with my first ever fanfic on this account! This is kinda for my Instagram, but yeah! Hopefully I'll keep up the motivation to finish this... I really like it so far!

Note - I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, for if I did, Rex Raptor would be a much more prominent character and Téa would be in the Shadow Realm.

Have fun reading, my lovelies!

* * *

Rex walked up the steps to Domino High School, muttering bitterly to himself about how much he hated the uniform he was required to wear. He tugged at the cobalt blue material, looking up at the school with a scowl on his face. Starting mid-term would put him in a very awkward position in this new school, but Domino High School was the only one that would take him after he had gotten expelled from his previous high-school. His crimson hat clashed awkwardly with the deep blue material of his school uniform, but he had stated many times over to the staff and administrators that he would not take it off to save his life, and after much arguing they had finally allowed him to keep the hat on, so long as it did not become "too much of a distraction." It was his first day at this new school, Monday, and Rex wasn't looking forward to it at all.

Brushing past the main doors, Rex caught every glance that met his, staring at the passing people with an icy indifference that would make a puppy quiver in fear. He knew what they all saw in him; it was always the same – they saw a young delinquent in training, someone who could not be trusted. An antisocial freak. Rex had heard it all too often; nicknames replaced his real one until he was smothered in labels, buried underneath them so tightly that you could hardly see past the thick exterior of what people assumed him to be. He took a slip of paper out from his pocket and read it over, looking down the hall to find his locker. People passing by glanced at him curiously, and when they concluded that he was nothing too interesting, they turned their attention away from him, chatting amongst themselves once more as Rex solitarily made his way to his locker. Once he tracked down the locker number that matched the one on his slip of paper, he placed his pack down and began working on the combination. Opening the locker, he emptied the contents of his pack inside and closed it, leaning against the locker in a way that simply stated, 'don't look nor touch.' He grimaced sourly at the passing students, all so happy and distant in their own little worlds.

A few years had turned Rex into a very unhappy boy. He had always had a mean streak – a ruthless Duelist he once was, but failure and humiliation had driven something harsher in him. His stepfather was an absolute ass nowadays, and his mother was suffering from his stepfather's rage as well, turning her back on the family altogether, and it was affecting Rex horribly. Things had been wonderful when his father was alive. Those were the days when the three would go out and actually experience things together as a family, bonding and having fun in general. But then his mother had to go and marry the first man she could without really thinking it over and everything went downhill. Rex himself had become a darker version of who he once was – a street-smart kid and a fighter nowadays, Rex got in at least one fight per week and was constantly victorious, being sent to the principal's office more times than SpongeBob had attempted to obtain his driver's license. Finally, after breaking a kid's nose for asking him politely to move, Rex was expelled and was beaten by his stepfather very badly for causing the administration so much trouble. He still showed signs of bruises faintly under his clothing weeks after the events had occurred, thankful that the uniform here was at least covering most of his injuries. His hand slipped into his pocket and he toyed with one of his favorite possessions – a switchblade he had obtained from an older schoolmate after beating the snot out of him after school. He smirked as he felt its cold metallic surface against his fingertips, feeling pride swell up in his veins. He wasn't as obsessed with dinosaurs as he once had been, but they were still very much a part of him, and he thought over what a "chumpasaurus" the kid who had gotten him expelled was. He closed his eyes in content, contemplating skipping the first day to go get some nachos at the local arcade, when a sharp gasp relatively close to him made him open his eyes in dull interest.

In front of him stood a student who made his blood boil and ice over almost instantly after his brain registered who exactly he was – Joey Wheeler was in front of him, pointing a finger at him almost accusingly. "You! You can't be!" The Brooklyn accent rang familiarly against Rex's ears, causing his hatred to boil over once more. "Rex Raptor!"

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" Rex spat back, his grip on his switchblade tightening. Rex may have been violent, but he was no fool – there was no way he was going to get expelled on the first day for pulling out his switchblade to brawl with Joey Wheeler of all people. The taller blonde stared down at Rex, clashing looks of watered-down anger and fresh curiosity twisting through his chocolate brown eyes as he examined the boy in front of him.

"I haven't seen you in years." Rex's shoulders relaxed slightly; Joey didn't want to fight him for anything he may still hold a grudge over from their past. "You haven't changed much."

"Neither have you, Wheeler." Rex's tone was still icy and uninviting, and he hoped that Wheeler got the message that Rex didn't want to catch up.

"You better be nice to the students here, Raptor." Joey growled slightly. "I know yer type – troublemaking little sleaze-ball. First time I hear that you're causing trouble, ya better run before I can find ya."

"Hahaha!" Rex's laugh was still the same, chortling out in nasally waves at Joey's tough-guy act. "Is that a threat, Wheeler? I can assure you, I may not be able to top you in dueling, but in fighting in general? Don't underestimate me, dino-scum. It'll be your last mistake."

Joey left Rex alone to continue his solitary relaxing by his locker until the bell rang. Groaning, Rex picked up the supplies he had left out and walked in the direction of his first class, a map of the school and a schedule atop his books. As much as he hated having to attend another school, he didn't want to deal with the wrath of his stepfather when he got home for skipping – Rex knew he wasn't ready to face up to that asshole of a man just yet. Finding his class – Algebra 1, his least favorite subject – Rex walked inside and sat down, unenthusiastically counting the hours until he could get out of that school and back home where he belonged.

The school-day passed by uneventfully – since Rex was new in the middle of the semester, most of the stuff the teachers taught didn't apply to him, were above his level of comprehension, or were some group activity that he was not required to take part in. He mostly just spaced-out during every class period, tapping his pencil idly against his notebook as images of past brawls scurried happily through his mind. If there was something Rex enjoyed, it was a good fight – knowing he could win against some punk who wanted nothing more than to put him in his place, where he so rightfully deserved. There was satisfaction in gaining the upper hand in the middle of a brawl he was losing at; something sadistic churned inside Rex that smiled every time he slashed his switchblade against skin or fought dirty.

Finally, the final bell rang and Rex walked to the front doors, holding his head down to look at some paper the teacher passed out that he had had no interest in reading. The small letters of the paper irritated the brunette-haired ruffian, and when he slammed head-first into somebody and fell onto his rear on the floor, his immediate reaction was to swear at whoever it was that was unfortunate enough to get in his way. He looked up at the person who had slammed into him who had also been knocked to the ground via collision, frantically searching for his glasses along the tiles of the floor. Rex had barely begun to yell at the unfortunate passerby before realization hit him like a brick, and he stared at the aqua-haired boy in front of him with his jaw agape.

The boy in front of him finally managed to grab blindly for his glasses, placing them on his face and blinking as his eyes refocused. He took one look at Rex and his jaw dropped his well, a small gasp emitting from him as the two exchanged identical looks of shock.

"Rex Raptor?"

"Weevil Underwood?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Rex Raptor?"

"Weevil Underwood?"

Rex got up off the floor and held a hand out to his former partner in crime, though his gesture was brushed off as Weevil got himself up off the floor. It had been quite some time since the two had last seen each other – they hadn't spoken since the events of Dawn of the Duel, when soon after Rex had been forced to move along with his stepfather and mother and the two boys had lost communication. Neither of them looked much different than they did back then – give or take a few inches in height, but that was natural. Weevil's hair was still in its bowl-cut state, the aqua strands framing his face making him appear younger than he truly was. He slid his yellow (although, Rex noted, they no longer had remnants of a bug design anywhere on them) spectacles further up his nose, taking Rex's appearance in full; Rex's bangs were still dyed lavender, the rest of his hair a blanket of deep brunette curls resting in between his shoulder blades. Weevil noticed the faint outline of a black eye adorning the left side of Rex's face, but that was the last thing that was on his mind as he viewed maybe the only boy he had ever truly considered to be his friend.

"It's been awhile." Weevil's voice was deeper, but still kept its nasally qualities that drove anyone listening crazy. "You still look the same, fossil features."

"I could say the same to you, Bug-boy." Rex exchanged pleasantries as well and the two brushed themselves off. Weevil took one look at Rex's crimson hat and smirked.

"Didn't they tell you no hats on campus?"

"Oh, believe me. They told me maybe fifty times." Rex rolled his eyes, his hands resting in the pockets on his jeans. "But that doesn't matter. I didn't know you went to this school, Weeves."

"And I didn't know you came here either." Weevil nodded. "I could have sworn your stupid stepdad made you move to Yokohama or something. Why are you back here?"

"We didn't move to Yokohama." Rex shook his head. "Just outside of the city boundaries. And I'm here 'cause I got expelled from my last school." He chuckled darkly at the thought, a proud smirk crossing over his lips. "Those chumpasauruses couldn't handle ol' King Rex, it seems."

"I wouldn't look too proud about getting yourself kicked out if I were you." Weevil advised with a small laugh as he mocked the taller boy in front of him. "You don't want the kids to know you've turned into a bad boy."

"Ha! Don't mock me." Rex's eyes flashed with a small glimpse of sadness that was soon consumed by the steady indifference he always kept up. "You don't know what I've become."

"I'll say, Dino-nerd. You're glaring so hard, you could give Kaiba a run for his money." Though the mocking tone was still evident in Weevil's voice, Rex could tell that he was being honest. "What happened? Did ol' King Rex lose his happiness somewhere down the road? What was it you said to Wheeler way back when – a little trouble in paradise?"

"Shut up, dumbass." Rex growled lowly. "Anyways, I'm not wasting my time here. I have to go home and—"

"And what?" Weevil scoffed. "Do homework? Your troglodyte brain couldn't even begin to comprehend any actual schoolwork they gave you. You've nowhere better to be than right here."

Rex was slightly shocked that Weevil had not been offended by being called a dumbass, but brushed that aside. "Yeah, right. You're acting as if I even gave the work a second glance."

"Exactly." Weevil purred in satisfaction. "Don't fool yourself by thinking you have somewhere to be."

"Hmph. Isn't there a bug-catching competition or something you should be speeding off to?" Rex spit back, his tone not nearly as sharp and intimidating as he intended it to be.

Weevil shook his head. "No. I'm not going to pretend I have somewhere to be. Would you like to get some nachos at the arcade, or are you going to continue being an antisocial bastard until I practically have to drag you there?"

Rex cocked an eyebrow. "And since when were you so excited to hang out with _me, _of all people? I'm dino-breath, Bug-boy."

"And?" Weevil shrugged, looking up at his taller friend. "It's been awhile. A lot has changed since we were fifteen. I've been meaning to call you up one of these days, anyways. So come on before I force you to."

Rex, knowing Weevil's persistence would not let up, ultimately decided to join him on a trip to the arcade. The two left the building and chatted idly to one another as they walked down to the arcade, though kept the chat vague, not going into any detail about each other. Finally, they reached the arcade, and after they sat themselves down at a table, they finally began to actually talk.

"So I see your bangs are still that repulsive shade of lavender." Weevil noted, reaching across the table to flick at Rex's light purple strands of hair. Rex halfheartedly reached out to nip at Weevil's finger, causing the germaphobe in front of him to shudder and retreat his hand.

"Yeah. And I see you haven't hit puberty yet." Rex grinned naughtily, an eyebrow arching delicately as he watched the expression on his partner turn into one of irritation.

"Oh sod off, fossil features." Weevil rolled his eyes at the brunette in front of him. "You haven't changed much yourself. Still look like the same delinquent I remember – you act like him, too. Only difference is that you seem to have actually grown some brain-cells from the last time we met."

"Heh. I got street-smart is what you mean." Rex closed his eyes contently, relaxing as he took a sip of the Root-beer he had ordered beforehand. "So what have you been up to, Bug-boy? Haven't heard from you since I moved."

"You'd be surprised just how little has happened!" Weevil gave a small frown. "Duel Monsters has kind of died down ever since that Pharaoh left us, for one."

Rex listened intently as he took another sip of his Root-beer. "The Duel Monsters franchised kind of died everywhere…"

Weevil nodded. "Then I got moved to Domino High School because my genius parents thought it would be a 'better fit for someone of my intelligence'... fucking know-it-alls… The entire _crew_ of people who hated us are there, swarming like parasites amongst the sea of vermin who attend that wretched place." Weevil snorted in disgust at the thought of the attendants at the school that Rex and Weevil now shared. "Yugi and his whole gang are just there, making it hell for anyone they don't like."

"What? I thought they were supposed to be the good guys." Rex rolled his eyes at the conceded bunch of kids he still despised to this very day.

"That's what they say they are." Weevil shook his head. "I haven't acted up in years and they still look at me like I threw Yugi's Exodia cards off that Duelist Kingdom Cruise Ship just yesterday. It's sickening, really. They'll probably do the same to you."

"Like I care." Rex laughed as the waiter came around, setting their plate of nachos down in the middle of the table for them. Rex took a particularly cheesy chip and crunched into it, crumbs spraying all over the table. Weevil shot him a look of disgust.

"You still eat like a dinosaur." He muttered with a shake of his head. "Hey, that reminds me… how's the old man you love so much?"

"Hey, fuck off." Rex growled lowly through a mouthful of chips, though lightened when he saw the look of concern flash across Weevil's features. "He's an ass, but I've managed to finally get away from him. At least temporarily."

"Oh? And how, pray tell, have you managed to accomplish that?"

Rex smirked proudly at himself as he grabbed another handful of nachos. "I got me a job with enough money to pay rent after I got expelled. So _pops_—" he practically spat out the word as if it were poison on his tongue, "—let me get an apartment by myself close to the new high-school I'm attending. Figured I was old enough – I knew that bastard wanted me out of the house as soon as possible."

Weevil was awed. "He – he let you get an apartment? By yourself? Just like that?"

Rex rolled his eyes as he sneered. "Well, yeah, but he's going to 'supervise' me for the next week or so. Just to make sure I don't fuck up my first few days of school, I'm sure. So how are things with your wonderful guardians you call parents?"

"You can hardly call them that." Weevil spat, then sighed in defeat. "They're getting more stressful by the second. And possessive. Now, it's as if anything I want to do has a bad intention behind it. They're not there for me; they never have been – they just want control over my actions. They're rooting themselves down into my life like a hornet's nest to the side of a house! I'm telling you, I can't wait until I go to college."

"Heh, you're planning on going to college? Sounds like something you would do, Weeves. Off to study bugs?"

"The proper term is Entomology, Rex. And actually, no – that's not what I would go to college for. Quit hogging all the chips, you've practically eaten them all." Weevil growled and slapped Rex's approaching hand away from the now half-empty tray of nachos, snagging some for himself. He munched quietly in a much more sophisticated manner than Rex, who had crumbs littering every square inch of his side of the table.

"I'm a growing boy." Rex said with a lighthearted chuckle as he watched Weevil help himself to the tray.

"You mean a selfish pig when it comes to food?" Weevil had a joking tone to his voice, and in response Rex feigned being hurt by the remark.

"Oh, Weevil!" He said with an exaggerated gasp, placing his right hand on his heart. "How dare you mock me! _Me, _a selfish pig? Have the gods just given up at this point? Or is it possible that you've just forgotten who I am entirely?"

Weevil chuckled, having to work through his mouthful of chips. He swallowed and shook his head. "No, you're exactly who I remember you as. Still carrying around that scruffy old hat, I see? You wouldn't exactly be 'Rex Raptor' without it."

Rex frowned now, rolling his eyes lightly. "It's not 'scruffy', it's sentimental."

"Is there even a difference?"

"Very funny, Bug-boy. Yes there's a difference." Rex gave a small snort of acknowledgement, gazing up fondly at his crimson hat. "You know as well as I do how important this hat is to me."

"Heh. I suppose even time couldn't break _you_ of an obsession, dino-breath." Rex gave Weevil a small glare before Weevil chuckled and continued. "I'm surprised I haven't gotten something of sentiment from my parents. A 'move out' note would be nice."

Rex chuckled, about to dig into the bowl of nachos when Weevil's glare kept him at bay. "You seem ready to move out if I'm not mistaken, Weeves. What, are your parents finally getting to you?"

Weevil frowned. "I want to leave the moment I can."

"Got a job?"

Weevil nodded. "Entry-level, though. Hey, that reminds me – how _did_ you score a job that pays enough to get an apartment, anyways? You should be at an entry-level job too."

"Heh. I live in the low-rent district." Weevil gave a look of horror in response to Rex's nonchalant reply, and he cocked an eyebrow. "What?" He asked. "Is that not good enough for you, Bug-boy?"

"You're living in the red-light district, Rex! Why on _earth_ would you want to live there?"

"I don't like the apartment, but I hate my stepdad more." Rex shrugged casually. "He doesn't give a damn where I live, as long as I'm out of his hair. The place was just short of falling apart and all he could say was 'Glad you found a place, _son.'" _

Rex finally took notice of Weevil, coming out of his rant to a face that was watching him with an expression he couldn't name. Weevil had his elbows on the table, propping his head up with his hands cupping his cheeks, his lips quirked in a little pout. His big blue eyes were trained on Rex in an inquisitive way. "What?"

"You _have_ changed." Weevil noted. "I can sense it. You're unhappier than you were as a kid. I've known you for years and you've never been this unhappy."

Rex shrugged, frowning at the nacho bin that was almost empty. He took a chip and crunched into it, the taste registering on his tongue as dry and salty. "A lot has changed since I left, Weeves."

"Yes, but what exactly? You've always been relatively good-natured." The smarter bug-nerd pushed up his spectacles; Rex once more absentmindedly noted again that they no longer sported an insect on the front of them. "Even when things went badly at home you would show up to school with a smile on your face. Only time I've ever really seen you down in the dumps was after…" He pondered it for a moment before he came to a conclusion. "After Duelist Kingdom when we were shunned. But you're in an even worse mood than you were then."

"My eyes opened to the world, I guess." _Why am I feeling ashamed to tell Weevil this? Why can't I just tell him all that's happened to me? I don't give a damn what Bug-boy over there thinks… but why can't I say it, then? _Rex questioned his hesitance when Weevil cut his train of thought.

"Come on," he whispered hoarsely. "Let's get out of here before they come with the bill." Rex nodded and the two got up, leaving the restaurant portion of the arcade hastily. Weevil told Rex that if he didn't want to stay for a game they didn't have to, and Rex had said that he was fine doing something else. The two walked out of the arcade, Weevil asking Rex where he wanted to go next.

"Do you still live in that fancy house I remember?"

"The seaside cottage? Yes. But I doubt my parents would like to see you at this time…" It was no doubt that Weevil's parents hated Rex – the trouble-making brunette was always getting into stuff and causing a Jurassic-sized mess, even breaking a whole cupboard full of fine China at one point in his youth.

"Alright. Wanna go hang out at my apartment?"

Weevil sneered, but shrugged. "Got nothing better to do, I suppose. Will your stepdad be home?"

"Pfft, nah. He's probably at the Seaside Tavern again, the alcoholic. C'mon, I'll show you the way."

The boys crossed streets that became steadily messier and shadier, eventually passing into red light territory. People from windows of run-down shops stared at the two boys curiously, sending shivers down Weevil's spine. All his life his parents had spoiled him, teaching him unintentionally to turn his nose up at poor people or anyone less than him – that is how Weevil first acted towards Rex when they had first met; like a lesser person, someone of filth and unimportance.

"Chill out, Weeves." Rex cooed. "They can smell your fear."

"S-shut up!" Weevil slapped Rex outside the back of his head, causing a backwards glance from the taller teen who was leading Weevil into unexplored territory. "Y-you're just gonna psych me out more!"

"Good!" Rex laughed heartily. "Lighten up! No one's gonna bite ya."

Eventually, the two reached a long, thin singular apartment building labeled "Terrace Forests." Where the 'forest' part of the name came from was completely beyond Rex, but it was by far the nicest apartment building out of the bunch. The two climbed slightly rickety stairwells up to the fifth floor, and Rex pulled a key out of his pocket and used it to unlock the door.

The slight smell of must tinged the air, and Weevil coughed as they stepped in. "Take off your shoes," Rex grumbled, not caring to take his own off as he plopped down on an equally musty-smelling brown couch that matched the color of his brunette locks. Weevil held his nose, grimacing at the place – the door opened up to a living room that had the low couch Rex was sitting on, a little table in the middle, a beanbag by the wall and a television. The kitchen lied to the right of the living room, orange backsplash giving the room an unsettling appearance. From what he could see, a hall went past the kitchen, leading off to two separate rooms, and on the left side of the living room there was also a small hall that lead to what appeared to be a laundry room and a bathroom.

"It's…" Weevil searched for the word, coughing as he inhaled. "It's decent."

"Snob." Rex teased, raising his arms up over his head. "You get used to it. Come sit down!"

Weevil kicked off his shoes, joining Rex on the brown couch. It was rather small, Weevil noted – the boys' thighs almost touched and the close proximity was beginning to make Weevil blush. Not wanting to appear weird by Rex's standards, Weevil got up and moved to the beanbag, leaning into its cushy frame awkwardly. It was the same chocolate as the couch, but felt completely different to sit on. Weevil stared up at Rex, who was drifting off into space, it seemed. After a moment, Rex's eyes snapped up, making Weevil jump a bit, and he watched as Rex eyed the kitchen.

"Want something to eat?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Pfft, you're sure jumpy." Rex gave a cocky smile not unlike that of a knight who had just emerged victorious from battle, leaning forward on the couch towards his prey. "What's the matter? Afraid you won't come out alive?"

"I told you to stop psyching me out." Weevil grumbled quietly, looking around the room in full now. Rex took a moment before he spoke again.

"Is your eyesight still poor?"

Weevil snapped his head towards Rex's immediately, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Why do you care to know?"

"Because when I bumped into you after school, you were crawling on the floor like some sort of mutant sloth." Rex laughed suddenly, causing a growl to emit from Weevil.

"For your information, my eyesight's unlikely to improve at all; it's permanent legal blindness. And secondly, excuse me for needing my spectacles – although I don't think it's fair to make fun of a legally blind man."

"Whatever you say, ants-for-brains." Rex waved off the gesture. Weevil suddenly frowned as if a realization came to him.

"What am I doing here? I should be doing homework…"

"You're the one who invited me out because I 'didn't have anywhere better to be.' You said you didn't either." Rex shrugged carelessly. "Your own fault, ants-for-brains."

"Don't call me ants-for-brains; I'm infinitely smarter than you." Weevil grumbled lowly again. "And the thought didn't occur to me at the time because I just wanted to catch up with you."

"Well, here we are. Let's do that catching-up you wanted to do." Rex sat back, closing his eyes. After a moment he sighed and muttered, "I need a drink…"

Weevil's eyes perked up to meet the exhausted boy on the couch, his face devoid of emotion. "What was that?"

"Hm?" Rex opened his eyes, staring down at Weevil. "What was what?"

"What you said. About a drink?"

Rex nodded. "Yeah. I think I got some of my stepdad's lager in the fridge he brought over fro—"

"No! No! Absolutely not! I forbid it!" Weevil jumped up from the couch, pointing an accusatory finger at the dinosaur-loving boy sitting across the table from him.

"Pfft. 'Snot like I've never had a drink before."

"And that makes it even worse!" Weevil tugged at an aqua-strand of his bowl-cut. "You never _drank! _In fact, you never did anything of the sort!"

"I told you." Rex said simply. "You don't know what I've become."

"And I don't think I want to know, either… Rex…?"

Rex locked eyes with Weevil. "Everything went downhill after we moved. That's all I'm going to say."

"Hmph." Weevil shrugged. "So you turned to alcohol. How typical."

"Hey!" Rex got up and glared, towering over the smaller boy in front of him. "Don't act like you've read my life like a book. Because you haven't. Don't assume stuff, Bug-boy. It won't be pretty. What I do is none of your business – if you wanna live sober that's great. But don't mistake me for an alcoholic."

"Yeah, because someone with your level of intelligence wouldn't get addicted to alcohol." Weevil growled bitterly. "I don't even know why I care – I don't. It's just so like you, dino-breath."

Rex got up from the couch, muttering something under his breath as he made his way for the fridge. Weevil, knowing well what he hoped to get, ran after him, cutting in front of Rex and spreading his arms out over the fridge in an attempt to the protect it from Rex's wrath. Rex paused, an eyebrow arched curiously at Weevil, before he smirked and shook his head.

"Do you know just how much stronger I am than you?" He chuckled and laughed almost darkly, knowing well his limits and strength. Though he kept his slim and almost girlish physique, he was very much strong and brutal with his power – years of fighting on a regular basis had given him slightly toned muscles that were hidden easily by clothes. He knew Weevil by heart; more of a manipulator than a hand-to-hand fighter, crafty and witty. In a way, the two were polar opposites; Weevil relied on his wits and smarmy behavior to get him what he wanted, whereas Rex just took care of anyone who stood in his way. And this applied to Weevil right now.

"I-I bet you're still as weak as ever, dino-breath!" Weevil spat back, almost the point of trembling. He wasn't so much afraid of Rex hurting him as he was anticipating it – Weevil had a bad habit of having pessimistic thoughts scattered constantly throughout his mind. Rex calmly strode towards Weevil and in one swift move grabbed him by the waist and lifted him to the point where Weevil had to bend over Rex's right shoulder to avoid falling on the floor completely.

"Whaaa! P-PUT ME DOWN!" Weevil cried, banging his fist against Rex's back feebly. Rex opened the fridge with his right arm, his left arm holding Weevil in place by keeping a firm grasp on his legs.

"Calm down, you're gonna make me drop you." Growled the dino-duelist as he grabbed a beer from the fridge. He kicked the door close with his foot and strode back over to the couch, Weevil still struggling over his shoulder. Rex gently dropped Weevil onto the beanbag and sat on the couch, propping his feet up on the other arm of the couch as he laid on it like a bed. He opened the beer and took a sip, relaxing with a sigh as he cast a curious glance at Weevil.

Weevil was staring at him incredulously, jaw agape. "How… how did you _do_ that?"

"I told you I was stronger than you." Rex said with a casual shrug as if it was obvious to the world that he was being serious.

"I guess a lot _has_ changed since you left…" Weevil shuddered in remembrance of how fluidly Rex was able to lift him. "You picked me up like I was nothing!"

"Well, to be fair, you're pretty light for a boy." Rex took another sip of the intoxicating liquid before Weevil narrowed his eyes and got up to protest. He turned a head calmly to Weevil, his expression staying nonchalant. "Come over here to get my bottle from me and I'll shove it where it hurts."

Weevil's lip quivered. "Then I guess I should go."

Rex laughed. "That's something a girl would say. You were the one who wanted to hang with me in the first place."

"Yes, but this isn't what I had in mind, Rex."

"Okay, then!" Rex hoisted himself up off the couch, putting the beer on the edge of the table. "Where do you wanna go?"

Weevil just shrugged, looking up at Rex with a look similar to fear trying weakly to hide itself. Rex sighed at this and relaxed his shoulders, slumping forward as he shook his head. "Listen, ants-for-brains. So what if I'm strong – you act like I'm gonna bash your face in or something!"

"F-for all I know, you are!"

"Weevil, stop overreacting." If the situation weren't so ridiculous, Rex would have laughed. "Because I'm gonna go prehistoric on the only person I consider to be anything more than scum of the earth."

Weevil growled, taking on a different approach this time. "Fine then. But don't you ever do that again. Understand?"

Rex laughed this time, holding his hand to his stomach as he took in how motherly Weevil sounded right then. "I'm not making a promise I'm going to break, Bug-boy. That's what chicks do. Do you want me to take you home? – because I can do that if you want."

Weevil shook his head, finally realizing how ridiculous he was acting. "I'm not afraid of you! You're Rex Raptor. You couldn't hurt a fly. I don't need to go home, if my mother cares this time she can get over it."

"Aren't we edgy." Rex chuckled sarcastically. "C'mon, let's go to the park."

"The park? What's there?"

Rex shrugged. "It's not in the red light district that you despise so much. C'mon, let's go."

* * *

The boys finally managed to find the park, after Weevil needing to take direction tips from strangers about a hundred times and Rex just nonchalantly cruising down whichever street they were on. It was a glorious day, albeit the sun was beginning to go down, and people were scattered here and there around the gorgeous area. For a large city that was barely had any plant-life to it (save for the trees that lined the streets or bushes here and there), this place looked like it belonged in another town – no, scratch that, another dimension! It was near the sea, though nowhere near the docks and piers. A gorgeous view of the lake rimmed the edges of the park, and lush green hills rolled here and there, blanketing the entire area in a soft yet vibrant green hue. Rex felt somehow happier as they went through the main gates to the park, and Weevil immediately had bugs on the mind, muttering something about how if they were renting butterfly nets he was going to be the first to get one.

Rex strode out to an open stretch of green grass currently vacant and sat down, enjoying the fact that there weren't any people in the area. Weevil joined him, sitting down beside him with his arms tucked around his knees. He watched Rex as he rolled over on his back, looking up at the almost cloudless sky.

"It's pretty." Weevil suggested. "I'll give you that."

Rex simply smiled at Weevil's appreciation, tipping his hat forward so it half-covered his eyes. His arms went to move so that his hands lay under his thick blanket of curly brunette hair and he closed his eyes, entirely relaxed.

Weevil watched Rex like this for a moment, still in his blue school uniform with his guard completely down. As thought after thought rolled by in Weevil's head, it occurred to him that he was being overly nice to Rex – he was treating him more like a friend than a companion. That bugged Weevil greatly, as he had made a vow many years ago that he would not let anyone leech their way down in his life – and suddenly Rex, who had been gone for gods know how long, was back and they were hanging out like they had always been friends! Weevil frowned; why was he getting so soft for the dino-loving freak of nature lying in the grass before him? The only thing he could come up with to counter this was that he might actually enjoy Rex's company, but that was absurd. Weevil did not thrive on human companionship and told himself time and time again that he did not need friendship to make him happy. His thoughts were cut short, however, when his gaze fell upon a butterfly fluttering in the grass about ten feet from where Rex and he were, and Weevil's bug-catching instincts kicked in. He got up, walking calmly to the unsuspecting bug, causing Rex to lazily open an eye as he watched his friend get up and leave.

"Hey, ants-for-brains, where do you think you're going?" Rex muttered, though was too relaxed to sound very threatening.

"Shut up." Weevil hissed. "I see a butterfly!"

"The find of the century." Rex closed his eyes again, rolling them in his sockets. "You must be the first."

"Shut it, dickweed." Weevil approached the flittering insect, crouching low on the ground to get a better view of it. He recognized it immediately - Thoressa varia – and smiled at the butterfly, examining it in detail. He wished he had a butterfly net, but just being able to examine the insect was enough to make him happy. He sat in complete silence, looking at every scale on the butterfly's dark brown wings, how its antennae twitched in small movements as it landed on a blade of grass—

"BOO!"

Weevil yelped in surprise and jumped up and the butterfly flew off delicately, making its way far from the two boys. Weevil turned to scowl at a laughing Rex, slapping him lightly outside his cap in retaliation or making him lose his prey.

"You dick!" Weevil snarled. "I was observing that!"

"And now you're not." Rex teased as Weevil scowled, placing his hands in his pockets. Rex chuckled and watched his short companion, a smirk written on his face.

"Now I'm beginning to remember why it was I never really liked you in the first place…" shot Weevil, pouting over the loss of his butterfly.

"Then it's your own fault for inviting me to the arcade in the first place." Rex pushed Weevil's glasses further up his nose playfully, then chuckled again. "Now c'mon, let's go do something fun."

Reluctantly, Weevil followed Rex, though soon found himself actually having fun. Over the course of an hour, the two had scared some little kids over by their playground area, – that was mostly Rex, who seemed to get a thrill out of making little kids run and cry – gotten some cotton candy from a vender in the park, and had generally just hung about the park lazily, admiring the day while it lasted.

Finally, the two found themselves by the water, where Weevil was now crunching on the last few remnants of his cotton candy while Rex threw his empty cup on the ground. Weevil scoffed at him. "Care to pick that up, dino-brain?"

"No, not really."

"You're such an inconsiderate jerk." Weevil mumbled as he stooped down to pick up the trash Rex had left behind. "Toss it in the trash where it belongs; is that really so hard?"

"When you're lazy like ol' King Rex here, it is." Rex placed himself in the sand by the shore, watching as sunset began to form over the horizon. "It's getting kinda late."

"Don't change the subject." Weevil found a nearby trash-bin, throwing both his and Rex's sticks into it. He went to join Rex. "It should be getting late by now."

"We've been here for awhile." Rex muttered, more to himself than to Weevil. He sighed, thinking of what his stepfather might do when he got home. Doubt and worry troubled at him, grabbing the attention of Weevil, who looked at Rex's troubled state with an arched eyebrow.

"Hey, earth to dino-brain!" Rex gazed up at Weevil, who showed ghost traces of a smile at the edge of his lips. "You okay?"

Rex shrugged. "I think I should be getting home soon, Weevil."

"Ah. Yes, that's fine; I suppose I should as well." He growled under his breath in annoyance. "Gods know mother isn't very happy when I don't make curfew."

"Pfft." Rex laughed heartily. "You have a curfew!"

"You must too, dino-breath, or you wouldn't be itching to get home all of a sudden." Weevil teased. "Because I'm sure the reason isn't that you want to spend time with your great old man."

Rex shot Weevil a glare, but the look passed into one of exhaustion. "Let's call it a day, Weeves." When Weevil nodded in agreement, Rex helped him up and they walked to the gates together.

As they passed, Weevil pointed east. "That's where I'm headed. You?"

Rex pointed west. "The low-rent district's that way, Bug-boy. So I guess this is goodbye."

Weevil snorted slightly. "Guess I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess. If I even bother to show up."

"Do whatever you want." Weevil shrugged dismissively. "It's your graduation at stake, not mine."

The two parted without another word of parting, Rex thinking solemnly about what awaited him at home.


	3. Chapter 3

Rex walked through the doors of his apartment just as dusk was beginning to tinge the horizon, low hues of purple and gray tinting the sky. His stepfather was on the couch, beer in hand, glaring expectantly at the door as Rex walked through. He was a slender man, mouse-faced, and Rex thanked the gods every night that he wasn't his biological father – he didn't want to look anything like that rat-faced scumbag.

"So." He slurred pathetically – Rex sighed as he prepared himself for a verbal fight. "So you've finally decided to come home." He pointed at a beer bottle, amongst others, on the table. "Tell me what that is."

"One of your stupid beer bottles?" Rex shot back testily. "Why should I care?"

"No, idiot!" The man slammed his fist down upon the table, causing the beer bottles to shake in the wake of his tremor, almost as if in fear at his outburst. "That's _your_ beer bottle!"

Rex froze, a gasp of realization washing over him; he forgot to put away the beer he had begun to drink when Weevil was over. He recoiled back; his jaw clenched in fear as his stepfather got up from the couch and sauntered drunkenly towards him. Rex slunk back against the wall, fear slowing his movements. He tried to bolt, but his stepfather caught his arm and wrenched him back towards him. Rex struggled against the stronger man instinctively, twisting in his grip as his father twisted his arm. Rex bit back a scream of pain, biting his lip near the point of puncturing the skin with his teeth. Rex's stepfather threw him towards the wall, pinning the brunette under him as he went to punch him in the jaw. Rex's yelp of agony went uninterrupted this time, an alarm cry of panic rising from his throat.

"First off, you don't take my fucking beer!" Another punch, this time to the gut, left Rex winded as he doubled over, gasping for breath and weakened. Slightly hurt from the assault a few weeks back, all Rex could do was endure the pain his stepfather brought and pray he wouldn't cry. A sharp punt to his crotch broke any coherent thoughts from his mind as his stepfather screamed above him. "Next off, don't fucking leave it sitting there to collect dust!"

Rex collected all the strength he could muster to retaliate with a punch of his own, landing it firmly right above his stepfather's navel. The older man exhaled in pain, grabbing his stepson by the shoulders and forcing him up against the wall.

"And one last thing – you don't talk back to me after you come home _late_!" A sharp back-hand to the face brought tears to Rex's eyes entirely against his will, and his stepfather dropped his grip on the boy, sending him falling to his knees. The older man stepped off, backing away from his stepson. "You're lucky I didn't give it my all in disciplining you." He barked meanly. "Now I don't want to see your face for the rest of the evening, you got that? I don't give a shit where you go – your room, down the street, a friend's house – just make sure you don't cross my line of vision. And don't even _think_ about coming to get another one of my beers."

Rex's stepfather walked out the front door, leaving Rex quivering alone in the living-room of his own apartment. Rex trembled as he got up, feeling blood from his lip stream slowly down his face – so he _had_ punctured the skin with his teeth. He licked at the wound gingerly, the metallic taste of his blood registering. He glared at the still-open front door, slamming it closed in rage. Rex rammed his fists against the wall, just adding more pain to the various assaults across his body.

"That bastard!" He vented, tears streaming openly down his face now. He wiped them away in humiliation, his hand sore from being slammed against the wall. Rex sighed in a calming fashion and strode to the bathroom, grabbing a large chunk of toilet paper and pressing it to his cheeks. He could see the darkening of a bruise begin to form across his jaw where he had been struck, and contemplated telling kids at school who asked that he got in a fight. He dismissed the idea after he realized that the kids here had not yet labeled him as a fighter, and groaned as he switched to the faucet, turning it on. He left the water running as he grabbed a small hand-towel from his cabinet, soaking it in the water that poured from the open tap. Rex turned off the tap and pressed the damp cloth to his face, his heated cheeks soothingly cooled by the fabric. Tears still came against his will, soaking up into the cloth as if that was where they were meant to be. As much as Rex hated himself for it, he feared his stepfather; there was no way around that. The man was much stronger than him and was much more violent as well, and knowing that there was someone Rex couldn't defend himself against scared him. As many physical fights as Rex had gotten into over the years, there were only maybe a handful where he had not emerged victorious from them, and Rex's stepfather was responsible for two of those five fights.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror, frowning at the exhausted and pathetic-looking boy staring back at him. What could he do? He knew his stepfather would be out of his hair in about a week's time, but what until then? Rex thought it over for a moment, his thoughts turning to Weevil – no, he _couldn't_ go bother Bug-boy with his daddy issues. It would hurt his pride and wound what little respect he had milked out of the Bug-duelist. As far as Weevil should know, Rex _had_ gotten into a brawl after they had parted ways. Rex took off his crimson cap – a rare gesture for him – and went across the apartment to his small bedroom. He muttered bitterly to himself about how much he wanted his stepfather dead and how one day he would get his revenge, though he obeyed his stepfather's demand out of pure fear. He didn't _want_ to retreat to his room for the night, but he knew that if he didn't, his next assault from his stepfather wouldn't be so lenient. For all the physical damage Rex's stepfather had ever done to him, two punches and a kick to the crotch were nothing in comparison, no matter how badly they may hurt. Rex slumped on his bed, putting his hat on the edge of the frame holding it up. He knew his stepdad had sauntered off drunkenly to the nearest tavern to get even more wasted than he had previously been, and Rex wanted for all the world not to be awake when he came back. Rex slipped off his school uniform, revealing the faint outline of a six-pack under a white t-shirt. Next came his pants, where bruises ran collectively up and down his legs, crossing with some scars like a mix-and-match candy barrel. He stared down and frowned – none of the scars were to be permanent, the doctors had told him, though seeing them made all his rage and anger rush back in a wave of sadness. Not bothering to change into anything else, the brunette flopped tiredly onto his bed, tucking himself under the sheets as quickly as he could. For all that had happened today, he fell asleep surprisingly fast; usually the boy was up for a few good hours sitting in the dark before he finally managed to get exhausted enough to pass out. Rex's eyes shuttered close as he drifted off into sleep, his hand over his heart and his blanket of brunette curls strewn all across the pillow in a messy fashion.

* * *

Morning came too quickly for Rex, with his now slightly-more sober stepfather pounding on the wall from the outside of Rex's bedroom. "Get up." He barked angrily, and Rex hesitantly left the bed before his stepfather could come in. _He's up early for being so hammered last night._ Rex thought to himself as he viewed himself in his bedroom mirror. His nose twisted up in a scowl – he was covered in bruises and looked like a disheveled mess from head to toe. His hair was particularly wild this morning, and Rex sighed as made his way to the only bathroom in the apartment.

He passed by his stepfather, who had fallen asleep on the couch in a drunken mess. "Hope you got one hell of a hangover." Rex muttered under his breath as he passed the passed-out man, going as far as to flip him off as he sauntered sorely to the bathroom. There, he went about his morning routine – and in maybe thirty minutes' time he was good enough to head out for school. He went back to change, once more passing the passed-out man on the couch, and got dressed rather quickly, wanting to leave before he woke up. Grabbing his crimson beanie and putting it on his head, Rex checked himself one more time in the mirror, giving a nod of satisfaction as he grabbed his book-bag. When he entered the living room, he found his stepfather to be awake this time, looking Rex over with glazed eyes.

"Hey, Rex." The man growled bitterly. "'Wanna talk to ya before you head out."

"What about?" Rex retorted, not trying in the least to cover the snap of his voice.

His stepfather's face contracted in a grimace. "Don't give me sass." He muttered, pointing a finger to the younger boy. "I wanted to tell ya that the next time you try something like that, I'm getting rid of that stupid hat of yours."

Rex froze for a moment, processing what his stepfather had told him, before he lashed out in anger. "You put one finger on my beanie and I'm sending you to an early grave!"

"Hey!" The man on the couch began to get up, but the rush from the hangover sent him reeling back to its support again, giving Rex a slight feeling of satisfaction. "Now you listen here."

"No, _you_ listen here. You don't threaten my hat." Rex growled angrily in a matter-of-fact tone. "The first time you even _try_ to hurt it, I swear to the gods will be your last."

His stepfather scoffed. "Move on from the past, boy. Your daddy isn't here anymore, and as meaningful as that cap is to you, you're not a little boy anymore. Cut the hair. Lose those girlish bangs. Do something with your life. And most of all, get rid of the cap."

"Screw off." Rex hissed, turning around and leaving before his stepfather could say something in response.

* * *

The walk to school was a tedious one, but gave Rex enough time to sort out his emotions before he had to face an onslaught of students. Knowing he would see Weevil there gave Rex a small sort of satisfaction, though that did little to calm his nerves. His jaw was in fact bruised, albeit the bruise was only a tad bit darker than his natural skin tone, and he expected to be questioned about it. Tugging at the stubborn blue material of his required uniform, Rex finally neared the school, only to find Weevil outside waiting for him.

The Bug-duelist approached the Dino-duelist and gave a small smile. "You're looking chipper this morning, dino-brain." He scoffed slightly, his eyes ghosting over the slight bruise on Rex's jaw. "Chipper indeed…"

"Yeah, and you're just ugly." As much as Rex wanted to be lenient with Weevil, his nerves were already frayed beyond repair for today. Weevil gave Rex a look of curiosity, though let his snappish behavior slide as he changed topic.

"What lunch period do you have?" Weevil questioned.

"Um…" Rex pulled his schedule out of his backpack, cursing it mentally for being so confusing. He eyed where "Lunch" had been written in what could have been Comic Sans and still not have looked any more ridiculous. "After fourth. Why?"

"That's when I have lunch." Weevil noted – more to himself than to Rex. Rex shot a glance at the younger boy in front of him.

"Alright, so that's one time of the day I get to help myself in seeing your ugly mug." Rex teased, earning a hard glare and a pout from the aqua-haired bug-nerd. "What? I'm no liar, ants-for-brains."

"Shut up, fossil-face." Weevil muttered. "Let's go before we're late…"

The two walked into the school, companionable silence falling between them as Rex glared at every passerby who was unfortunate enough to look his way. Weevil found amusement in this, chuckling to himself every time someone who looked at Rex averted their eyes nervously. After this went on for a minute, Weevil interjected Rex's performance by saying, "Damn, I was right about what I said yesterday – you _do_ give Kaiba a run for his money with all your indifferent glaring. Goodness, if looks could kill you'd be the singlehanded reason for the apocalypse!"

"Stop before you become my first victim, you little pinworm." Rex retorted, though kept a joking edge to his voice.

"Hmph." Weevil snuffed his nose up highly in the air in a pompous manner, causing Rex to laugh lowly. Good-natured chuckles escaped from deep inside his throat, making him feel better somehow as the sound got swallowed up in the immense wave of other conversations going on. Something about the gesture registered as funny to Rex, and for no reason in particular he was laughing beyond his control, barely able to catch his breath as Weevil kept his nose stuck up in the air like a hound howling at night. "Your nose—" Rex began, cut off by his own laughter. "You look ridiculous!"

Weevil opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as he looked at Rex caught up in his own laughter, smiling to himself at the taller brunette who was getting merriment out of just about nothing.

"Ah…" Rex calmed down gradually, laughing a bit here and there. When he was calm enough to speak, he continued. "I needed that…"

"Glad to see I could be of assistance, dino-brain." Weevil cooed.

The two chatted idly to one another as the day went on, the ringing of the bell ending a particularly good conversation amongst the two of them. Rex said goodbye to Weevil and walked to his first class of the day, thinking bitterly to himself that he had forgotten to do his homework. His mood was dampened at the thought, but he reminded himself that he never did homework anyways, and shrugged it off, bounding to class in an infinitely better mood than he had been before he left for school that morning.

* * *

Lunch came relatively quickly for the brown-haired ruffian, and as he walked to where he remembered the lunchroom to be, he actually had a happy air about him as he bounced down the halls. As always, he kept an indifferent glare about him, his voice devoid of emotion, but a playful smile almost tugged at the edge of his lips, not exactly showing through the surface of his blank face but not lost in its rigid, icy depths. He got satisfaction out of seeing the students recoil as he passed from the corner of his eyes, and this only made the playful smirk come even closer to showing itself.

Rex walked through the doors to the cafeteria feeling dangerous, an arrogant, almost electric jolt coursing through the air as the lavender-fringed nobody walked down the aisles around the tables. He had no idea where this sudden course of confidence came from, but he liked it very much – for a boy who had only been here one full day, Rex felt like he already had the school trembling at just the mention of his name.

He caught Weevil's attention somewhere along the way of his walking down the aisles, and the Bug-duelist approached him without a moment's hesitation. He punched the taller dino-boy in the arm, noticing the confident smirk written across his face.

"Better watch out, King Rex." He scoffed. "You don't own the school just yet. Better tone it down a bit – they can sense your overconfidence."

Rex chuckled softly in spite of himself. "Good to see you too, Weeves."

The boys went outside; lunch could be held anywhere across campus as long as it didn't interfere with classes and as long as the students didn't go home or skip the rest of the day. The two boys now sat beneath a maple tree, Weevil snacking on a sandwich that had been wrapped in Saran-Wrap. Rex didn't have enough time in his morning to make lunch and his drunk of a stepdad sure as hell wouldn't be cooking him anything anytime soon, so the Dino-duelist was foodless this afternoon, watching Weevil eat lazily from under the shade of the tree they were under.

"Didn't you bring something to eat?" Weevil asked, his words snapping slightly due to the stick of the peanut butter spread across his sandwich. Rex made a face at the boy and his smacking noises.

"Hmph. I could eat a whole dino-hoard of food right about now." Rex sighed. "Didn't have enough time to pack lunch today. There's always tomorrow, I guess."

"Aren't you hungry?" Questioned the smaller boy after he had just taken another bite of his sandwich.

Rex shrugged neutrally, trying to look as casual as possible. This illusion was broken, however, when as if on cue his stomach growled in hunger, causing Weevil to laugh out loud. He threw his head back as he laughed at Rex's expense, earning a frown from Rex. Weevil stopped laughing and dug into his brown-sacked lunch, throwing out a sack of small gold crackers Rex recognized immediately.

"Why the hell do you have Goldfish in your lunch box?" He asked, snorting at how ridiculous the concept seemed.

"Because my mother can't seem to grasp the concept that I don't like them." He spat back, edging the plastic bag closer to Rex. "Eat up, dino-breath. They're yours."

"Hm." Rex nodded his appreciation as he grabbed the sack, opening it up and grabbing the fish in handfuls, shoving them into his mouth gracelessly at almost constant intervals. Weevil could only watch in disgust as Rex drained the bag of its contents, crumbs spilling from his mouth and onto his clothing almost as constantly as he was shoving the defenseless crackers down his hole.

"Good lord." Weevil would have gagged if Rex had been eating anything else. "Forget what I said about you just eating like a dinosaur – you eat like a starved T-Rex on steroids!"

Rex threw the empty bag back in Weevil's brown lunch-sack. "Told ya – I'm a growing boy, I need my protein."

"I doubt Goldfish provide a sufficient source of protein." Weevil scoffed.

"You get what I mean…"

Weevil looked at Rex full-on for the first time since they had sat down, and now frowned at him. Rex raised an eyebrow curiously as he watched Weevil's hand extend towards his face, and when his finger made contact with the skin on Rex's jaw he let out a hiss of pain, gritting his teeth as Weevil's finger dug rather sharply into his bruised skin.

"I hadn't really noticed it before." Weevil stated, using his other hand to inch his glasses further up his nose. "You didn't have that yesterday. What, did you already get into a fight with somebody, Raptor?"

Rex scrunched his nose up, wiping Weevil's hand away with his own. "Stop touching, that hurts. And that's none of your business, queen-bee."

"I believe it is, seeing as how I just asked." Countered Weevil, crossing his arms and giving Rex that pout that he seemed to have on him so often.

"Got in a fight with my stepdad for leaving beer out on the table." Rex muttered, not unlike a child who didn't want to admit that they did something wrong. Weevil's eyes widened, his jaw dropping ever so slightly.

"He… he hurt you because of that?"

"Pfft. That was nothing." Rex said before he could stop himself. Weevil stared at him, nonplussed, silently demanding a further explanation. Rex furrowed his brow at Weevil in sudden irritation. "Don't look at me like I need to tell you everything." He growled quietly. "I don't really want to talk about it. He'll be gone soon, anyways."

"How soon?"

Rex shrugged. "Maybe in the next week or so. Weeves, don't get involved. It's not your fight. It's mine and mine alone."

"Pfft, whatever." Weevil shook his head, strands of his aqua hair smacking the side of his cheeks as his head bobbed from side to side. "It's your funeral."

"He's not gonna kill me, ants-for-brains." Rex muttered, wiping the crumbs absentmindedly from his school uniform.

"You say that." Weevil scoffed. "But that kind of abuse escalates. Next thing you know, he'll be gouging your eyes out with a spoon or—"

"Weevil, gross, shut up!" Rex glared daggers at his bug-loving companion. Weevil rolled his eyes.

"Like I said, it's your funeral. If you're gonna be a complete dumbass about it, that's your decision."

"Exactly." Rex's mood was soured by Weevil's concern. He got up from the floor, crumbs from his jacket falling like snow onto the ground. Without another word to Weevil, he turned and walked to a place in the campus he hadn't explored yet, and to both his relief and his disappointment Weevil didn't follow him as he sauntered off to blow off some steam that had been pent-up over the day.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Songs belong to their owners, not me uwu

There is some foreshadowing in this part! cx Hope you can catch it!

I got two reviews on this fic so far and I am so happy that people like this! :D I really hope that this can go up to your expectations and please you throughout it ^^;

Next part, some actual stuff happens. Plot advances and everything. SHOCKING, I KNOW cx

As I said last time, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, for if I did Rex Raptor would be a much more prominent character cx

* * *

Eventually, school had ended, and Rex had no desire to speak with Weevil as the final bells rang. He left as quickly as he could, slipping past people in the halls and being less than polite to anyone who wouldn't move immediately out of his way. Finally he made it to the front doors and burst free, scampering along the road to the low-rent district he now called home. He looked behind him to make sure Weevil wasn't in sight, cursing at himself mentally for being such a sissy about hiding from Weevil of all people. What frightened him was that Weevil cared – or at least he had seemed to. Bug-boy had actually given his predicament some thought and had expressed true care and concern towards Rex, which he had never really experienced before. This in turn was new to Rex, which he despised – he didn't want to feel like Weevil pitied him for any reason. In fact, he didn't want Weevil to know about anything going on in Rex's life at all. Weevil was by no means his friend; they were simply acquaintances who had grown rather friendly to each other due to their alliance in the past. Nothing more, nothing less. Rex assured himself of this with a nod of finality, hating himself for getting so worked up over _Weevil._

Rex finally managed to get home, only to find it (unsurprisingly) empty. Rex smiled and sighed, breathing in the tang of must, and went to sit on the couch, taking off his school-clothes. He buttoned down the blue over-shirt he wore to expose a plain-white t-shirt underneath, freeing much freer and more comfortable once the suit was off. He got up, hanging the coat on a coat-rack by the door, and went to his room to change his pants.

Once there, he put on a CD by Slayer – secretly, Rex adored music, especially metal of any kind. The noise racketed through the house, and Rex changed into blue jeans that were a much looser fit on his waist, his head nodding up and down to the rhythm of the song that was currently playing. He didn't honestly care if the neighbors complained about the loudness of the music; so long as he could listen to his tunes in peace, he was fine. Rex hummed along as he walked back to the living room, Slayer's music coursing down the hall as he went into his small kitchen. He opened the fridge and pulled out a microwavable burrito, grimacing at the rock-hard packet as he slammed it into the microwave. "I gotta go grocery shopping." He muttered to himself as he punched in the time that it would take for the food to heat up, going back to lazing about.

* * *

The next two days went along like this; Rex and Weevil made minimal conversation, and when it was it was usually a snide comment or just plain something rude. Rex's stepfather remained mostly out of the picture, only showing up in the dead of night when Rex was usually fast asleep. As the week went on, Rex thought less and less of Weevil, his thoughts dulling to the point where it was like he was nonexistent, a ghost floating around the halls of the school; its sole purpose there was to give indifferent glares at the other classmates and hope no one from Yugi's clique bothered him. He did see Yugi and his friends every so often – usually they were doing some self-righteous "Stop bullying!" campaign or hanging sickening decorative posters up raising awareness about bullying – Rex almost had too much fun sabotaging the posters as soon as he would see another one pop up somewhere around the school campus.

One day, Weevil couldn't take it anymore – he had finally gotten the only person he ever even remotely tolerated back, and he was _ignoring him! _No one ignored Weevil Underwood and got away with it! Rex was standing with his back against his locker during lunch when Weevil approached him, glaring up at the taller brunette boy.

"Raptor, you've got some nerve!" The boy huffed.

_Oh great. _Rex thought with a small snort. _He's here to pick a fight with me. _"What'd I do this time, Bug-boy?" Rex called out in an expectant tone.

"For the love of the dinosaurs you worship so much, avoiding someone is what a _girl_ does!"

Rex gave a crooked smirk. "I'm no girl, but go on."

"Forget it." Weevil shook his head. "You're not worth it. If you're sore because I actually gave notice to your black-and-blue face, you can—"

"Now who's acting like a girl?" Rex laughed, cutting Weevil off. "Calm down before you make a scene." He adopted a teasing sneer now. "I was waiting to see when you'd come crawling back to me."

"I—what?!" This caught Weevil completely off-guard. "Listen here, you troglodyte! I—"

"Save it for someone who cares." Rex gave a small smirk. "Was there anything else you wanted, or was ruining my oh-so manly image of you enough for today?"

"You're hopeless." Scoffed Weevil, though Rex could see the faint trace of a smile ghost around the edge of his lips. "And there was one thing – wanna actually spend today at the arcade?"

"Depends. You paying?"

"Why the hell would I pay for you?"

Rex chuckled and shrugged. "Alright, I'm in. We getting nachos there, or…"

"No, we stole food the last time we were there." Weevil shook his head. "They'll be suspicious."

"So where am I supposed to get some food?"

"Beats me; figure that out on your own." Weevil gave Rex a small glare. Rex smiled crookedly down at Weevil, and out of the blue he ruffled his fingers through Weevil's aqua hair. Weevil slunk back at the gesture, annoyed that his hair had gotten messed up, and worked on fixing it.

Rex chuckled. "How about we go eat an actual restaurant this time, Weeves? And maybe even pay the waitress. If she's good-looking."

"You never find good-looking waitresses, dino-brain." Weevil retorted, though thought over the suggestion. Finally he shrugged casually. "Eh, with your appetite, if we don't eat you'll be upset the whole time we're there. Fine, I guess we can stop to eat at an actual restaurant. Just not Burger World."

"Why not Burger World?"

"Joey and his friends work there." Weevil muttered with a sigh. Rex just shrugged as if the news was nothing out of the ordinary – which, in reality, it was.

"So the rookie has an entry-level job. Same as me and you do. What's the big deal?"

Weevil gazed up at Rex nonplussed. "Joey Wheeler… the guy who took your Red Eyes? Humiliated you twice in a duel? Was part of the reason that we lost our glory and fame in the first place?"

"Weevil, I've had years to get over that." Rex shrugged. "I don't feel like keeping a grudge. I'm not friendly to that ass… but I'm not gonna get livid over things they did way back when."

"That doesn't sound like you at all, dino-brain. Especially since the 'new you' seems to like fighting." Weevil gave the bruise on Rex's face another glance and a simple nod. "And besides, Rex, they won't give you that same respect back. They hate me for the things I did all that time ago… they've made my time here miserable because of it. And no amount of giving not yelling at them when they piss you off will fix that, Rex!"

"You were the one who threw Yugi's Exodia cards off that cruise ship, not me." Rex countered with a smirk, though he knew inwardly that Weevil was right – Yugi's clique would never accept the two boys, though that was something that he knew and respected for awhile now. "Just what all have they done to you to make this place hell for you, anyways?"

"Hmm, where do I begin? Well, they've tampered with my sources of transportation; they set me up on a date-ditch with a girl who I actually thought was nice…"

"A what?"

"Well… there was this chick, kinda nerdy… she asked me out on a date and I said yes, because I figured it was time I expanded my horizons… and she ended up ditching me in the middle of nowhere; she had provided the ride, and she left with it, so I had to walk home…"

"Woah, woah, woah. _Yugi and his friends_ did that to you?" Rex's jaw dropped. "I thought they were nice!"

"There's a good reason for me hating them, you troglodyte." Weevil spat, though his words were tinged with sadness. "They've done a range of other, less important things over the years… I don't wanna bore you with the details."

"Heh. Any of 'em try that with me and they'll get a real taste of ol' King Rex's foot-stomp!" Rex didn't care so much that they did this to Weevil in the past as much as he wanted to prevent it from happening again. _It's one thing to pick on that weak little bug-nerd when I'm not around… but if they dare try that on Weevil when I'm around, even if I'm not there… they'll regret it._ Rex absentmindedly slipped his hand into his pocket, fidgeting with his switchblade as his brow furrowed.

Weevil eyed him curiously. "What _are_ you doing?"

"Hm?" Rex raised his eyes, locking them with Weevil's own grey-blue ones.

"You're fidgeting… it's weird."

"Huh. Dunno why. Guess I don't notice it." Rex shrugged. "Anyways, I should probably get going, Weeves. I got stuff to do."

"If by 'stuff' you mean 'skipping class'." Weevil joked. "I'll catch you on the flip-side, Raptor! And you better not ditch me either."

With that and a small wave, Weevil turned and left Rex to lean against his locker, his fingers still wrapped around his switchblade as he hummed quietly along to a song that wasn't playing in the hallways of the school.

* * *

School ended with Rex drowning out the final bell to the sound of music from his iPod, banging his head quietly before he noticed the students beginning to file out of the room. Frowning, he crammed everything in his backpack, getting up with a grunt of effort. _Gotta go get ants-for-brains. _He thought to himself, turning down Renegade by Styx as he filed out of the room as well. He still was unsure about the campus he was adapting to, but could manage it well enough to find the front entrance without too much difficulty. Renegade still playing, Rex made his way to the front doors of school – his usual hard glares at the students were softened due to the music calming his nerves.

"I said, Dino-Breath!"

Hearing the shouting faintly over his music, Rex turned his head over his shoulder to catch sight of Weevil, looking like he was just short of kicking Rex to get his attention. "Take the damn earbuds out!" He could hardly make out Weevil's words, but complied anyways, pulling out one of the few portals to his levity and setting it aside to make conversation.

"Sorry, man, Styx was playing."

"I don't give a damn what sticks you were listening to!" Weevil misinterpreted Rex poorly, wagging a finger up by his nose. Rex contemplated nipping at it to get him to exit his space, but decided against it, instead turning up his nose at Weevil's finger and staring at it as if it were some odd alien parasite. "Gosh, first you deliberately ignore me, and then you unintentionally ignore me! What's next, dino-brain? You gonna go deaf or something?"

"What? Sorry, I wasn't listening." Rex brushed Weevil's finger away from his face, smiling testily down at his companion. Weevil gave a glare that might have actually intimidated Rex the smallest bit if he hadn't been in such a good mood, and the taller boy chuckled softly. "Oh lighten up, Weeves. We still on for the arcade?"

"No, that's why I decided to get your attention after class. Of course we're going to the arcade." Weevil rolled his eyes and continued walking alongside Rex, who put an earbud back in to keep the music rolling. Renegade had ended and Living on a Prayer had just begun. "And don't even think about tuning me out with that crap you call music."

Rex lightly slapped the back of Weevil's head. "Shut up. The stuff I listen to is great."

"About as great as the rap we listen to today." Weevil scoffed, ducking to avoid another slap from Rex.

"You can't even compare it." Rex growled. "Besides, you don't even listen to music, so you can't talk about it like you have. I don't talk shit about bugs."

"That's a weak argument." Weevil chuckled as they walked along the streets heading to downtown. "Say, that reminds me…"

Rex paused Jungle Love to look down at Weevil, who now looked troubled. "Yeah, what?"

"Yugi and his friends came up to me today during passing. They said something about how now that you're back, I need to stay on my toes and keep out of their sight." Weevil frowned, chewing subconsciously at his thumb-nail. "It was odd. I guess Wheeler told 'em you were back, and as I predicted, they don't like that."

"Yeah Weeves, don't want me to be a bad influence now." Rex thought this was more humorous than alarming, chuckling good-naturedly as they began to near their destination.

Weevil sighed, staring coldly at the older boy. "Don't act so nonchalant, dino-brain."

"You fear them; I don't. It's as simple as that." Rex shrugged. "You can live in fear at those nobodies, but I refuse to be like that. If they want to start trouble outta nothing, I'll be more than happy to give 'em trouble."

"What would your stepdad do?"

Rex returned Weevil's cold stare. "Don't bring him into this; he doesn't belong in the conversation. He doesn't belong anywhere. He's leaving in three days, anyways. But that's not the point and you know it."

"Yeah, yeah, then shut up about it." Weevil turned to watch where he was walking this time. "Better watch the road, dino-brain; don't want a repeat of last time we were on this street to happen."

"Huh? What do you…" Rex turned and stared down the road, then laughed; they were walking down the same road where the cloaked man all that time ago had dueled them and taken their souls. "Can't believe that was a few years ago. Gods, he was creepy."

"I would have won that race we had if he hadn't interrupted." Weevil stated in a matter-of-fact tone, smirking proudly as he inched his glasses further up his nose.

"Yeah right, bugs-for-brains. Even _then_ I was stronger than you. _I _would have won."

"Nuh-uh." Weevil stuck his tongue out at Rex as they continued walking.

"How much you wanna bet?"

Weevil crossed his arms and pouted. "I'm not going to race with you now; you'd win in a heartbeat."

"Ah, playing it safe, I see." Rex tipped his hat forwards, exposing the lavender bangs trapped beneath the crimson material. Weevil stared for a moment, then changed topic.

"You know, Rex, I don't think I've ever seen you without your hat on!"

"Yeah, because I never take it off." Rex shrugged as if it was obvious to the world – which it should have been to Weevil. "Even I've forgotten what I look like with it off."

Weevil laughed for a moment before he shook his head and smiled. "I'll have to see you without that ridiculous cap on sometime, Raptor. Who knows – you may look like less of a mess without it covering your hair."

"I'm not a mess." Rex retorted casually. "Besides, I look better than you do; uptight bug-nerd isn't exactly a hit with dames."

"I'm not looking to impress a bunch of immature females." Weevil scoffed. "Unlike you… you're hormone-fuelled 24/7."

"Because every teenager in the world besides you is, Bug-boy. You just have to accept that you're not part of the simple majority."

"I already have accepted that, it seems that you're the one who hasn't yet." Weevil smirked up at Rex, watching him as his eyes wandered to a teenage girl who passed by them. Rex turned back with a confident smile, eyeing the road between just about every girl he could get his eyes on.

"Because you're just weird, Weeves. I'm telling you, you need to go ahead and hit puberty already; it's much more fun this way."

"Oh sod off, I already _have _hit puberty. When I was like twelve." Weevil added, sourly gazing at everything but Rex. Rex ruffled Weevil's hair, earning a grunt of disapproval from the aqua-haired boy as his hair was disheveled. "Don't do that, you're gonna get your disgusting grease all in my hair."

"See, told ya – uptight bug-nerd."

"Bet it's better than being whatever you're labeled nowadays. What even _are_ you, anyways? I know you well enough to know you don't do drugs, so you're not a stoner… and you don't participate in skating… you _have_ remained away from drugs, right?" Weevil looked up at Rex, his gaze no longer irritated but rather curious and slightly pleading. "You've changed since last we met… it'll be a shame if the few brain cells you've managed to scrap together are destroyed by the fumes of marijuana."

"I don't know what I am either." Rex shrugged. "And stop worrying, ants-for-brains, I'm not a stoner."

"Good." Weevil kept his reply short as the two neared the arcade. "So how much money did you bring with ya, dino-brain?"

"I didn't." Rex teased. When Weevil turned to stare nonplussed at him, Rex chuckled and continued. "Only messing with ya, Weevil. I snagged a twenty from ol' daddy's wallet."

"He'll beat you to a pulp when he finds out you took it." Weevil replied, only slightly snide as he gazed up at Rex with worry clouding his expression. Rex laughed and shrugged.

"With all the money he wastes at that tavern he goes to, he won't notice it missing."

The two reached the arcade at this time, Rex swinging the door widely while Weevil went in. Rex followed, looking around the dimly lit arcade with slight interest. Now that they weren't here to eat and to play games, he could truly get a look at all of the games and the atmosphere; dimly lit, the only true color coming from flashing screens on arcade games and light-up decorative on the wall, the arcade atmosphere would have made wonderfully for a party. Take Back the Night was playing in the background, only helping the atmosphere feel even more dangerous, and Rex smirked, liking the feeling the arcade gave him.

"Whaddya wanna play first?" Weevil called over the music, and Rex turned his gaze from nothing to his younger friend. He shrugged casually.

"Do whatever you want." He called back.

Weevil looked around the arcade, which was relatively packed – the downtown arcade was always popular with teenagers – and his eyes lit up the moment he found what he wanted to play. He grabbed Rex's jacket sleeve and tugged as he pointed to a game over in the corner. "That one looks good!" He called, already making his way over. More against his will than anything else, Rex followed behind, the darkness of the room and the amount of people participating in playing games disorientating to the brunette ruffian. He finally managed to locate Weevil, who had already slipped two quarters into the machine and was playing, lost deep in the game. Rex walked over and leaned against the machine, watching the game half-heartedly.

_Tonight the night's, come on surrender  
I won't lead your love astray, astray, yeah  
Your love's a weapon  
Give your body some direction  
That's my aim  
Then, we could  
Take back the night  
Come on, use me up until there's nothing left  
Take back the night  
Dizzy, spinning, sweating, you can't catch your breath  
Take back the night  
Ooh, don't know when the sun is rising next  
Take back the night_

_So if the feeling's right, then raise your glass and let's_

_Take back the night_

Rex, usually not a fan of newer pop music, found this song actually quite enjoyable, bobbing his head up and down to the beat while he tapped his foot to it. Weevil, who had been so busy in his game that he failed to notice that Rex had been standing there, looked up to Rex. He watched the older boy, caught up in the song, and smirked.

"Enjoying the song, Rex?" Weevil chuckled.

Rex nodded. "This would be a great song to fuck to."

Weevil sneered in response, averting his eyes back to the game. "I'm telling ya, you're hormone-fuelled 24/7. As if _you_ could ever score."

"How do you know I haven't scored already?" Rex cooed. "For all you know I've been with tons of chicks."

"I highly doubt that." Weevil spat back, making theatrical gestures as he scrolled through his game – he'd duck when an object from the sky fell towards the main protagonist, swing his body left and right to match the movements of his character; Rex found great humor in this and found himself mesmerized by Weevil as he moved along with the game. "The day you score is the day the King of Games loses his title. It's the day that we become famous again and reinvent in card-games. Tell me right now _honestly_ that you've slept with a girl."

"I'll have you know I _have_ been with a girl before." Weevil looked up from his game at Rex, who had his arms crossed and was giving a triumphant yet serious look to the green-haired boy.

"Legit?"

"One-hundred percent, Bug-boy."

Weevil shrugged and went back to his game. "I've never really been interested in chicks…"

"I'm telling you, Weeves – you're weird that way. For as long as I've known you, you've never been too interested in chicks. Why do you think that is?" Rex's arms were still crossed, though his head was tilted towards the bug duelist, looking at him curiously.

"They're just not my style." Weevil offered, wondering over the question himself. He had come to a conclusion long ago about why it was he did not find girls too interesting, but didn't want to give his insight to Rex; making the situation awkward was not something he intended to accomplish today. "I don't wish to have an immature girl attached to me… they're too much work. I suppose you'd make a horrible boyfriend, dino-brain; you'd forget their birthdays or just plain ignore them…"

"I'm a fine boyfriend." Rex scoffed. "But let's just say I wasn't with the chick to be cutesy."

Weevil froze, turning to Rex. "You..." He shook his head and tried to return to the game, his concentration completely shattered by Rex's words. He lost rather quickly, not finding the concentration he needed to defeat the harder levels. This was something he completely expected from Rex, but at the same time it was something he had hoped Rex would never stoop to; Weevil's mother had taught him from a young age to cherish and love a girl, and that love was a serious thing, not to be spread around like crayons to an open canvas. He suggested quietly that they find another game and Rex shrugged casually, following Weevil as they walked about the arcade.

Finally, Rex found a game he wanted to participate in, and about half an hour later he turned to notice that Weevil was not with him anymore. _He must have buzzed off to go do something else._ Rex figured with a shrug as he turned back to his game. After a loss, he frowned and went to find his friend in the dim lighting of the arcade. For awhile he was unable to find Weevil, even going as far as to call out to him in the crowds, and it was starting to get to the usually level-headed boy. He stomped about, anger flaring to that of a T-Rex's, when finally he caught the flash of Weevil's spectacles. Sighing in relief, Rex ran towards the boy, catching Weevil by surprise; he had been playing a crane-machine in hopes of winning what Rex could recognize as a butterfly.

"You startled me!" Weevil whined. "I could have missed my target." The crane pulled up on the butterfly's wing, levitating the object halfway before the slippery material of the butterfly slipped through the metal bars and the insect-plush fell back to the carpet of numerous other plush-toys. "God damn machines. I blame you for this, dino-breath."

"It's about time I caught up to you." Rex scolded. "Move over and let me try – you're obviously not going to win that butterfly on your luck streak."

Rex popped two quarters into the machine and started moving the controls, Weevil pressing his face up against the glass to peer at Rex's movements curiously. Rex stooped the machine down and the crane grasped its claws around the butterfly, lifting the stuffed toy up into the air. Rex pressed the controls to bring the crane to the pick-up slot, and it dropped the toy obediently. Weevil squealed beside him in happiness, bending over to grab the butterfly from the slot. He hugged the toy to him ecstatically, a wide grin on his face.

"It's awesome!" He gushed. "I owe you one, dino-breath."

Taking that as enough of a thank-you, Rex tipped his hat forward in response. "Think nothing of it, Bug-boy. Now c'mon, let's go."

The two exited the arcade with Rex still humming along to Take Back the Night. Weevil cocked an eyebrow towards the older teen, cutting him off mid-chorus. "You really like that song, huh."

"I usually hate modern pop." Rex shrugged. "But that song's really catchy. I dunno, I like it."

"I'll have to remember that sometime."

"Don't know when that will come in handy, but thanks, I guess." The two made their way to the marking point of their parting, waving to each other as they made their separate ways home. Rex didn't anticipate his father being there, and the sun was only just beginning to go down, so he felt safer this time around returning home.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Okay, this is gonna be a long one, PLEASE read!  
So I promise this is gonna be the LAST TIME Rex gets into a fight in this fanfic, okay?  
I dedicate this to Suzy, my Weevil roleplayer on Instagram, because she's fabulous and she does the BEST tsundere Weevil 3  
Anyways, I was searching for Shrimpshipping pictures to post on my Instagram when I came across this Shrimpshipping Tumblr: and I noticed a link to a fanfiction on there. So I clicked on it and I realized it was a link to THIS fanfiction!  
So THANK YOU! To whoever posted that on there or got here from that link! I'm so honored that this has only been on here for a few days and already it has a few fans! I am so honored!  
Alright, I'll let you all get back to reading uwu Have fun, my lovelies!

* * *

Friday went uneventfully, and the weekend passed with the same result. On Monday, Rex's alarm clock buzzed in its high-pitched warble, bringing the teenager out of his dreaming with a groan. He slapped weakly at the clock until it finally shut up, stretching in his bed. Today he was supposed to meet Weevil before school to plan going somewhere afterwards, and as much as he didn't want to get up, Weevil was a pain in the ass when he didn't get what he wanted, and that was the last thing Rex wanted to deal with at 7:30 in the morning.

Finally getting to school, Rex was met with the sight of Weevil conversing with Yugi himself, who had surprisingly grown a few inches and now stood at probably 5'7"; Rex himself had grown to 5'8", Weevil keeping at a steady 5'4. Weevil was looking miffed about something, his brow knitted into an annoyed furrow as he tried to keep his calm with the King of Games. He turned his head when he caught sight of Rex approaching and Yugi backed off, giving the two one last icy glare before he went to join his friends.

"What did dickhole over there want?" Rex growled lowly as soon as Yugi was out of earshot, turning to his companion with a look of worry and annoyance.

Weevil finally gushed with latent frustration, talking so fast that Rex could hardly understand what he was saying. "I can't believe him! I was here minding my own business when that queen came up and started mocking me for hanging out with you. I began to counter him when he said that this school 'doesn't accept fags.' 'The first time you two hold hands,' he told me, 'Will be your last.' Can you believe that? Firstly, that was absolutely unnecessary, and—"

"Woah, Weevil, wait a minute." Rex cut him off, his face flushing. "Just hold on here for a moment… Yugi's a… homophobe?"

Weevil nodded. "I guess so. Didn't you hear? He almost ditched Wheeler because he confessed his love to Seto Kaiba."

"But I always thought that no-good King of Games was with that Pharaoh that took over his body!" Rex frowned. "That makes no sense! Why should he care what your orientation is?"

"Shut up dumbass, I'm not homosexual." Weevil hissed. "Yugi's gotten the idea that I'm like… with you or something."

Rex snorted at this. "Because I'd make the perfect boyfriend, eh Weeves? Couldn't deny it any longer?"

"You're taking this with a pinch of salt." Weevil sighed flatly. "Should have expected this from you."

"Oh hush, I'm only joking. And I'll have you know that I'm taking this with _two_ pinches of salt."

"Because that makes it all so much better." Weevil sighed. "I should have expected this from _Yugi's_ clique… bunch of righteous bastards…"

"Calm down, Weeves." Rex placed his hand on Weevil's shoulder for about two seconds before removing it. "Don't let them get to you. It isn't worth it."

"I suppose you're right… you know, for a boy who's as violent as you are, how is it that you can keep calm in situations like this?" Weevil asked.

Rex shrugged. "I guess I'm good with knowing when to keep my calm and when to let all hell break loose. I don't know what to tell you."

Weevil gave a weak smile. "I think I'm gonna head off to class early… if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, that's fine. Talk to ya later, Weevil."

"Bye, Rex."

The two parted ways and Rex walked down the corridor where Yugi had retreated to, scowling as he hoped to find the King of Games. _We'll see how high and mighty he feels when ol' King Rex comes to strip him of his throne. _He thought bitterly to himself as he pushed roughly past people.

"Raptor, wait up!"

Rex turned his head to catch sight of Joey Wheeler making his way to the lavender-banged boy. As much as he hated Wheeler, Rex slowed down for him, the taller blonde catching his breath momentarily after he caught up with him.

"Do you think we could speak in private? Maybe somewhere less crowded than the middle of the hallway?" The Brooklyn boy asked. Rex shrugged casually and the two made their way over to his locker, leaning against it as they talked again.

"I overheard what Yugi said to Weevil." Joey frowned. "Is he okay?"

"Why the hell should you care?" Retorted Rex.

Joey frowned. "Because I know what that feels like to get bashed in by Yugi for being gay."

Rex cocked an eyebrow in half-interest at Joey. "I heard something from Weevil about him being mad about you and Kaiba or something like that…"

"Shh, Yugi doesn't know I'm with him." Joey growled lowly, his voiced hushed. "And don't you go spreading any rumors around either; trouble from Yugi is the last thing Seto and I need."

Rex stared at him in shock, though his face was devoid of emotion. "You mean you're actually afraid of Yugi to the point of hiding your own sexual orientation in front of him? Kaiba's a big-boy, why should he let this happen to the guy he's with?"

"I've been with Kaiba for about six months now." Joey gave a small smile. "And Yugi may seem like a peaceful guy, but he has a special hatred in his heart for anyone… different in that regard. Beats 'em to a pulp; I've seen it with my own eyes. Kaiba wants his blood for the things he's done to students, but I've told him over and over again not to get involved. I don't want to see Yugi beat you or Weevil up for being together."

"That's real sweet, Wheeler, but I'm not gay for Weeves." Rex scoffed lightly. "And if I was, I would be bashing Yugi's face in for threatening him."

"Really?" Joey relaxed, a blonde eyebrow coming up in curiosity. His Brooklyn accent became somehow sharper as he spoke now. "I figured you two were going at it; I saw you two at the arcade yesterday and you both looked happy."

Rex shrugged. "Weevil's too asexual to notice anybody but an insect and I don't take relationships as seriously as I should."

"Takes guts to admit something like that." Joey paused for a moment before speaking up. "You know, Raptor, I don't hate you."

Rex relaxed, taken aback by Joey's surge of straightforwardness. "Okay…?"

"I'm sorry for snapping at ya before." Joey smiled sheepishly. "I do wanna start fresh, you know? Get old air outta the bag, so to speak."

"I don't know if that's even a saying to begin with, Wheeler." Rex chuckled lowly. "But whatever – I'll let bygones be bygones."

"Good. And just in case Yugi gives you trouble, please don't hesitate to speak to me or Kaiba. I know you're not with the little bug-nerd, but once Yugi gets an idea in his mind he won't let it go until it's fulfilled… and if it's Weevil's blood he's after he won't stop until he's shed it."

Rex let a low possessive growl shift through his lips. "Then don't be too stunned when I beat the shit out of him."

"Do it for me and Kaiba too, while you're at it." Was all Joey said, giving one last smile, before he turned around and began walking away slowly. "I gotta get going; Seto needs me. Talk to ya later, Raptor."

"Bye, Wheeler."

* * *

All day in school was stressful for Rex; thoughts of Weevil kept swarming through his mind for whatever reason. He didn't know why, but he wanted to make sure that Weevil was fine and away from Yugi and his homophobic wrath; a possessive side to Rex flared up, wanting nothing more than to keep Weevil safe. But why? Rex realized that this reminded him somewhat of his relationship with his stepfather, but dismissed this as reason behind him wanting to protect Weevil. The Bug-boy had never done anything for him – so why did he want to protect him? The question baffled Rex, and so the day was spent in pent-up frustration. At lunch, the moment he found Weevil he asked him about Yugi, gaining nothing interesting out of the younger boy; Yugi hadn't bothered him since that morning.

"Rex, you need to calm down." Weevil informed him. Their roles were reversed now, Weevil being calm and collected, whereas Rex was stressed and had to move non-stop just to keep himself stable.

"Weevil, Joey _Wheeler_ came up to me asking if you were alright." Rex bit his lip thoughtfully. "That has to mean something, right? I mean, he and Kaiba have been keeping their relationship hidden for half a year because they _fear_ the little twerp!"

"That's them, Rex. Please, sit down; you're going to end up tripping and falling. Rex, I'm going to be fine… why are you feeling so overprotective?"

"That's what I've been wondering." Rex answered honestly. "It's just, he bugs me. We haven't done anything to him and he's attacking you because he thinks you're gay? What kind of logic is that?"

"Don't get so worked up. You overreact. Besides, he probably won't do anything."

"I'm still keeping an eye out for him."

"You do that, dino-breath…"

* * *

The final bell rang and the students half-heartedly filed out of class, Rex amongst them as he made his way to find Weevil. He had calmed down considerably since after lunch, even contemplating putting in his earbuds and listening to music to help drown out the bantering of the students. They roamed up and down the hall in swarms, and as much as Rex wanted to put in his earbuds, he ultimately decided against it; Weevil didn't like when Rex listened to music around him, labeling it as 'tuning him out.'

_Bug-boy wanted to go get lunch after school, _Rex thought to himself as he passed by a group of students. The school lunches never appealed much to Rex, and Weevil's parents did a horrible job in packing him food, so the two were oftentimes hungry after classes, and today Rex wanted to treat Weevil out to lunch. Whistling the tune to the song he had heard in the arcade, Rex paused mid-chorus when he heard something amongst the banter, something that caught his attention the moment it was uttered. He listened in, hoping to tune into whatever conversation he was getting, until he found the sources of the speaking and eavesdropped around them; a group of teenage girls excitedly gossiping.

"Did you hear? Yugi Muto came out of nowhere after class and challenged Weevil to a fight!"

"Yeah, I heard from Espa Roba as Katie and I were walking down the halls!"

"They're still going at it!"

"Haha, it's no doubt that Yugi's going to win. Remember what he did to that last student?"

Rex broke into the middle of the conversation, pushing through the circle of girls to make himself better seen. "Excuse me." He said quickly, not giving a damn about them. "But _where_ is this fight taking place?"

The girls turned their noses up in disgust at Rex, but answered him nonetheless. "Out by the alleyways, where the schools unload their dumpsters. You better get there fast if you want to see the fight, it's about over anyways."

Rex bolted, trying to use what he learned of the campus to locate where the alleyways were. Finally he managed to locate the rather dark alleyways, looking like they belonged in a different country opposed to every other place on the campus; dank and shady compared to the usually bright and airy campus of school. Instantly he could hear shouting, unmistakably belonging to Yugi Muto, and he bolted once more towards the sound.

He reached a clearing where the walls of the schools met, a closed location, only to find Yugi himself above Weevil, who was sitting against a wall, blood from various wounds staining his school uniform. An arm was raised weakly over his head in a vain attempt to protect himself from any further assault from Yugi, and the boy weakly called out, pleading for Yugi to stop. Rex froze and growled protectively, watching for but a moment as Yugi stood over Weevil; the tri-colored boy was about to lash out at him again when Rex intervened, his voice just enough to make Yugi freeze in his tracks.

"Hey, almighty King of Games."

The entire atmosphere jolted frozen for a second, Yugi turning his head slowly back to be confronted by none other than Rex Raptor. A thick, frozen blanket of tension rose over the situation, each boy frozen in place; seconds became eternities as Yugi straightened himself up, glaring the brunette boy down until he finally decided to talk.

"So you've come to rescue your _boyfriend. _How typical. This school doesn't accept fags, Raptor. You better leave before I cut you up too."

Rex growled and crouched defensively as his hand slipped into his pocket, grabbing at his switchblade. "First off, Weeves isn't my boyfriend. And second of all, this school isn't run by you. You're real funny if you think you could take me on."

Yugi scowled. "I'll kick your ass for coming here, Raptor. Showing your face is just proof enough that you're gay for that little worm." He pointed to Weevil, who stared up at Rex weakly, his eyes glazed over and pleading. The boy looked like he was about to pass out from blood loss.

"I don't get it." Rex spat. "I thought you were Mr. Love and Tolerance. Preacher of the Heart of the Cards. You had a fucking 5,000-year-old man_ living inside of you _for gods' sake! Where did this – this homophobic bullshit come from?"

"I am all of those things and more. But I have always hated gays." Yugi growled. "And I am willing to hurt people who disrespect what I believe in."

"People can't change what they are, jackass." Rex spat, and Yugi caught him off guard by running up to him, jabbing him in the stomach. Rex staggered back, out of breath, his grip tightening around his switchblade as he brought it out of his pocket. He pressed the button to open it and the blade whisked upright, pure instinct rushing through Rex's veins like adrenaline as he expertly slashed the blade against Yugi's arm. He didn't want to injure the boy too bad; he could get away with self-defense if the injuries were light yet potent enough to take him down. But every second counted and Rex couldn't afford to be lenient – for all he knew, Yugi may have a switchblade of his own, waiting for the right moment to whisk it out. Yugi shot back and hissed in pain, blood already beginning to stain the sleeve of his uniform, and in retaliation he rammed headfirst into Rex, bringing his skull crashing to the brick wall of a building. Stars and light blinded Rex for a moment as he stood, dazed by the impact. The back of his head felt like it was on fire from the jerky throw, and his movements were slowed as he tried to adjust to the sensation of intense pain.

Yugi grabbed his switchblade from him, causing Rex's concentration to come back. He grabbed for it, but Yugi was faster, getting a clean cut down Rex's left arm. Rex retaliated with a punch to Yugi's temple and grabbed the switchblade, slashing out at the blonde boy as fast as he could. Slash after slash adorned Yugi's body, some intertwining and some in completely random places. Blood was seeping between both boys as Yugi bit into Rex's flesh near his neck, puncturing skin and bringing blood to the surface. At a particularly hard kick to his crotch, Rex reeled back in pain, thinking vaguely that he should be able to stand up to the once-puny King of Games. Time had definitely given Yugi a miracle in both height and physical strength, and not even Rex could completely keep up with the boy. Instinctively, Rex ducked to the right to avoid getting his nose broken, kicking Yugi in the same spot. The boy above him bit his lip hard enough to puncture it and Rex took the opportunity to throw Yugi off of him. Yugi landed on the ground and Rex waited until he staggered to speak.

"Leave now…" His words were labored as he fought to catch his breath in the small intermission he had given himself. "And I won't… hurt you…"

Still, Yugi did not back down, hurling himself at Rex the first moment he got. Rex's grip on his switchblade loosened at the impact and the weapon was hurled from his grasp, lost amongst the pavement as the two boys wrestled on the ground. The two could have been compared to wrestling tom-cats, a writhing mess of labored cries and growls. The two weren't afraid to play dirty; Rex tugged Yugi's hair to the point of ripping fistfuls out, Yugi had thrown Rex's hat off and was now clawing at exposed skin behind his ears, leaving deep scratch-marks in the delicate skin. The two boys went on like this until Rex felt a pair of hands tugging him away from the smaller boy. He still fought, his arms going out to grab at Yugi as the person from behind lifted him away. He turned to catch sight of Tristan Taylor, helped by Duke Devlin, and he ceased writhing enough to cooperate with them. Joey was helping Yugi up off the ground, though the boy was pretty much down for the count; he had so many slash-wounds from the switchblade that they were hard to count, his hair disheveled terribly from Rex's assault, and many other bruises started to accumulate on his pale complexion. Yugi pushed Joey away, declining his help, and went to sit against the wall opposite from Weevil. Rex broke free from Tristan and Duke, knowing well that the fight was over. He walked over to collect his hurt friend, stooping down to help Weevil up. Weevil badly needed support, so Rex took his arm and placed it around his shoulders, holding Weevil up as he went to retrieve his switchblade and his red cap. He clicked it shut and put the bloody weapon in his pocket, limping away from the scene as Tristan and Duke began to tend to Yugi.

Joey ran after Rex, walking beside him in silence until they got to the front of the school. "Thank you," Joey said with a small smile.

"Will Yugi be okay?" Rex turned his gaze from Weevil, who had promptly passed out, to Joey.

"He'll be fine; you didn't hurt him too bad, from the looks of it. How about Bug-boy? Does he need to go to a hospital?"

Rex frowned, his troubled gaze once more falling to the unconscious boy. From the looks of things, he wasn't hurt too badly, although Rex's own labored vision and the covering suit of Weevil's uniform wasn't helping his case. "I don't know." Rex said. "I'm going to take him home."

"Good luck." Joey sighed. "And know that I appreciate this… even if ol' Yugi got his butt kicked…"

"Tell him next time I won't be so lenient." Rex hissed, though lightened enough to give a halfhearted smile. "And tell Kaiba I said hi. See ya, Wheeler."

* * *

Rex finally made it home, slamming the door open with the still unconscious boy in his arms. Rex dropped Weevil roughly onto the couch, going into the bathroom to fetch some medical supplies. He took one look at his reflection in the mirror and gasped; he looked like an absolute mess. His hair was sticky with blood and messy from the brawl, clumps of it stuck together in drying blood. His face was adorned with bruises everywhere, as was the places on his body he could see through his uniform. He stripped himself of the dirty clothes and threw them in a hamper, going to his room to change. In nothing but his boxers, Rex grabbed a clean t-shirt and went back to clean himself up. He wasn't too afraid of Weevil waking up; the boy had just taken a hell of a beating and now needed to rest from it – he wasn't used to enduring pain like Rex was.

Rex opened a bottle of peroxide and began pouring some onto a cloth, working on his deepest wounds first. After about ten minutes, every wound had been disinfected and stung from the treatment, though Rex felt better. His hair still rested on his shoulders messy and blood-stained, though he figured he would take a shower after attending to Weevil's cuts.

He walked into the living room to find Weevil awake, albeit tired and dazed, sitting up on the couch weakly. Hearing the approaching footsteps, Weevil opened his eyes and looked at Rex, giving him a small smile.

"Hey, Weeves." Rex returned the smile. "Listen, I'm gonna clean your wounds. Okay?"

Weevil nodded, too weak to really decline his help, and Rex worked on removing the layers of his clothing that were hiding potential bruises. It was heavily awkward between the two as Rex worked silently, Weevil surprisingly quiet as Rex took off his cobalt blue jacket and pants. Thankfully, Weevil had a white t-shirt on underneath his uniform, though that was slightly blood-stained. Rex removed Weevil's glasses, earning a pout of disapproval from the boy underneath him. Rex scrubbed gently at Weevil's wounds, relieved to see that the boy, although hurt worse than Rex, had no serious injuries or anything potentially dangerous – mostly bruises and slashes from whatever Yugi had used to cut his skin. More flesh wounds than anything else, Rex knew these stung to clean, and worked as swiftly as he could. Finally, Weevil had all his injuries taken care of and was now resting on the couch, fast asleep. Exhaustion pulled at Rex's eyelids as well, to the point where he slumped down on the couch next to Weevil and passed out, all thoughts of taking a shower draining from his mind as he drifted off to a restful sleep, feeling more content than he had in a while.

* * *

When Rex awoke it was late at night, and soreness ached from all over his body. He groaned stiffly as he sat up, rubbing his eyes quietly as he yawned. The entire house, from what he could tell, was pitch black, the only exceptions being the appliances in the kitchen. Rex turned his attention over at the microwave in the kitchen, which flashed the time 10:49 p.m. on and off in a vibrant blue.

"Fuck." Rex sighed. "I must've passed out… damn it's late…"

He ceased talking when he heard the stirring of another human being next to him, and the moment he caught sight of Weevil's aqua hair everything that had happened rushed back to him, every vivid detail refreshing his memory. The boy next to him sat up, blinking blindly into the darkness of the room. "Where…" he began weakly, his head twisting about in worry at the pitch-black surroundings. "Where am I?"

"Calm down, Weeves." Rex spoke up. "You're at my apartment."

"Can you get me my glasses? I get a headache when they aren't on me…"

"Sure thing." Rex found the glasses easily as his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room. He handed them to Weevil before he got up, groaning in pain and dizziness as he walked over to where he remembered the light fixture to be. Flipping the switch, the room was flooded with a saturated light, causing both boys to squint and blink as their eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. When Rex could finally look at Weevil without pain causing him to close his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the bruises all over Weevil's small frame; he was sure he looked the same. Dressed in his own boxers and a t-shirt, Weevil looked down at his lack of clothing and blushed.

"When… when did I lose my clothing?" He questioned, looking back up at Rex only to drop his jaw. That confirmed it; Rex must look terribly roughed-up.

"I washed your cuts and stuff when I got you here." Rex shrugged as casually as he could. "I had to take that stuff off, Weeves, or I wouldn't have been able to help your wounds."

"T-thanks, I guess… geez, you look horrible." Weevil pushed his glasses further up his bruised nose. "I watched you both fighting in front of me… I guess you really _are_ a fighter, fossil features. You messed him up big time."

"To be fair, he was tough for an opponent." Rex made his way into the kitchen to fetch a snack for the boys; missing out on their scheduled after-school lunch _and_ dinner had to be made up in some way tonight. He found a tub of pistachio ice cream and shrugged, figuring it was good enough. He dished out two servings in the only clean bowl he had and brought it out, setting it on the table in front of Weevil.

"This ice cream's… for me?"

"You're sharing it, Bug-boy." Rex warned. "This was the last clean bowl we had."

"Ewww. Share with _you_? I think I'd rather not."

"Shut up and eat it." Rex muttered crossly, shoving a spoon into the creamy confection. "We've been passed out for a few hours; you need food."

Weevil sneered once more at the bowl of ice cream before his hunger got the better of him. He reached down to grab the bowl, digging into the mint-green dessert resentfully. "I don't like ice cream." He muttered crossly, though took a bite of the provided food anyways.

"Be sure to save some for me, ants-for-brains." Rex joined him on the couch, leaning into the cushions wearily. Though he had passed out for a good portion of the day, he still felt exhausted. Weevil passed him the bowl and he snagged the spoon from the boy, helping himself to a spoonful as he felt himself relax.

The two went on like this, although being the germaphobe Weevil was he had complained constantly about how he didn't want to catch any 'dino-germs'; Rex was too tired to care and truthfully, Weevil was as well. The bowl empty and sitting on the table, the two boys were now chatting idly about the events that had happened a few hours earlier.

"So what happened?" Rex said with a frown. He itched at the skin under his cap and closed his eyes.

"Well, it really started when the teacher asked me to take the trash accumulated over the day out to the recycle bin." Weevil pushed his glasses further up his nose and continued talking. "Yugi must have followed me out there, because the next thing I knew he blindsided me when I was putting the trash can down. Knocked off my glasses, too."

Rex scoffed. "Figures. How long was it until I got there?"

"How am I supposed to know the answer to a stupid question like that?" Weevil spat. "Maybe ten minutes."

"Good enough for me not knowing about it until the rumor mill happened to spit it out." Rex shrugged. "I had to find out from a bunch of gossiping girls I listened to out of ear-shot."

"Sounds like you. Thanks, by the way, for saving me… Yugi would have squashed me like a beetle if you hadn't been there."

Rex turned to look at his friend and gave a small smile. "Don't mention it, Weeves."

Weevil yawned and nodded, tilting his head back to the couch. "I better not catch you two fighting again… one quarrel between you is enough…"

"You're not the boss of me." Rex retorted tiredly, his head's own weight causing it to tip off the couch. He yawned and looked at Weevil. "You tired?"

"Yeah…" Weevil nodded sleepily, his eyes drooping almost the point of being completely closed.

"Alright. Then I'm gonna head off to bed."

Weevil's eyes snapped open at this and he placed his hand on Rex's shoulder, stopping the boy as he began to get up off the couch. "N-no!"

"Hm?"

"I don't do well alone in unfamiliar environments." Weevil countered, a slight blush tingeing his cheeks. "Would you sleep on the couch with me?"

"I don't owe you anything." Rex scoffed, brushing Weevil's hand off his shoulder. Weevil began to pout, about to say something when Rex flipped the switch, turning the lights off. Weevil sunk back into the couch, arms crossed for a moment before he felt Rex's weight beside him again.

"You're staying?"

"Yeah, why not." He could feel Rex shrug beside him. "I don't want to listen to you whining all night because you're alone here on the couch."

"Hmph." Rex knew it was the closest thing he'd get to a 'thank-you' from the stubborn Bug-boy, so with a final sigh of relaxation Rex cuddled up against the cushions of the couch and dozed off. As soon as his soft snoring filled the air and Weevil figured he was asleep, he gingerly cuddled up to Rex's side, the top of his head gently scraping against Rex's chin as he too drifted off to sleep. Weevil's pain was forgotten as he rested against the brunette ruffian who had saved him earlier, and the last thought that went through his mind before he finally fell asleep was, 'I'll have to repay Dino-Breath one day for all this…'


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: **Please Read, This Is Important!**

Okay, hello to everyone who read the last chapter and didn't hate me enough to stop reading! (That was a joke but seriously I'm afraid I'll lose people for this xD)

Anyways – I was reading one of the three reviews I now have on this fanfiction and it talked about how Yugi was out of character. So I re-read the chapter and… you're right!

I guess I didn't really understand just **how intensely** I wrote him out of character. I don't hate Yugi in the slightest; actually I think he's a very good-natured character, and that's why it shocked me, looking back, that I wrote him as so vicious.

I wasn't really thinking _about_ the character as I wrote this, just what I wanted to accomplish in the chapter. The line, "Where did this – this homophobic bullshit come from?" from Rex shows that I _did_ know I was writing him immensely out of character… just… I guess I wasn't thinking about Yugi as a character at all. I mostly just had him for plot, to make the story move along – originally I was going to have Joey fight with Rex, because that would be much more fitting, but then I realized that I needed Joey for something important in the story that has yet to be revealed.

ALSO – The line "Trust me" is VERY important in this fanfiction :3 I'm thinking of renaming the fic to "Do You Trust Me?" because it's a very very important line.

Anyways, I'm going to end here, and I really hope I didn't offend anybody by making Yugi a homophobe. Truthfully, this is the last time that we'll really hear much from Yugi in the fic, and I said in the last chapter that this was the last fight Rex got into this fic, so yeah, all that's water under the bridge.

Have fun reading, my lovelies!

* * *

By the time Rex was fully awake, sunlight was pouring through the dirty windows of the apartment, streaming onto his face. He stirred, knowing well that he was at least a few hours late to school, when the sudden weight against his side reminded him that he was not along on the couch. He looked down to find Weevil, aqua bowl-cut disheveled greatly, asleep with his face pressed into the slight curve of Rex's side. A slight blush tinged Rex's cheeks and he hesitated for a moment before gently pushing against Weevil's shoulders in an attempt to wake him up.

"Weeves." He cooed softly. "We're late for school, get up."

"Five more minutes mum…" Weevil sighed in his sleep, cuddling up further to Rex's side. Rex jabbed Weevil's side with a sigh, causing a growl of resistance from the sleeping boy. He opened his eyes and glared up at Rex in irritation for a moment before his eyes widened and he backed away, almost toppling off the couch. Rex's hand shot out and grabbed Weevil's arm to keep him from falling off the couch.

"That hurt, I think you jabbed a bruise." Weevil growled.

"That's what you get for _cuddling_ me." Rex retorted with a small smirk. Weevil's cheeks reddened and he ripped his arm out of Rex's grip.

"Shut up, I get cold at night sometimes." He mumbled, getting up. "Gods I'm sore…"

"Well you should be." Rex himself slipped off the couch, his hand rustling through his hair only to be caught in a clump of dried blood. He sighed and tugged his hand away before speaking again. "This is the morning after we both took a beating from Yugi, remember?"

"Explains why I slept in _your_ house." Weevil looked around the place, his nose crinkling up in disgust. "It smells so badly of must I'm surprised I slept through the night."

"Well we aren't spoiled with wealth from birth." Rex spat back tiredly, walking towards the hall. Weevil turned and watched him, his mind registering that he had slept in his glasses as he moved them up his nose.

"Where are you off to?"

"I'm gonna go take a shower. You should too."

"In your house? No way, dino-brain. Hey, wait a minute." Weevil froze up mid-adjustment, his jaw dropping. "Did you say we were… late for school?"

"Yup." Rex called nonchalantly from the bathroom. "At least a good few hours. In fact, I'd say the best thing we can do today is just skip it altogether."

"W-what?! No! We can't!" Weevil's panic was immediate, his voice rising a few octaves in shock. "My perfect attendance—!"

"Ah, fuck the perfect attendance." Rex laughed, proud that he had stripped Weevil of something that made him a total goody-two-shoes. He turned on the water to the shower and walked back out, wearing only his boxers. Weevil blushed at the lack of clothing on his friend and turned away, focusing on the couch as Rex bustled about his apartment. Weevil heard the front door click locked, and turned his head up to see Rex walking away from the door.

"Rex…? What did you do?"

"Locked the door. I can't have you rushing out injured to save your attendance." Rex scoffed as if it was obvious. "Now I'm off to take a shower. For the love of Jurassic Park, don't break anything in my apartment, and keep outta my room. Got it?"

Weevil snuffed tensely in response, crossing his arms. "Since when did I have to abide by the rules set in place for a five-year-old?"

"Since today, Bug-boy." Rex walked back to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. His voice was muffled from the other side, but Weevil heard him clearly. "And don't think I'm above beating on a guy with glasses, 'cause I'm not."

"I still don't believe you would." Weevil called out, going back to sitting on the couch. His wounds hurt like crazy and a massive headache was pounding at the back of his skull. He sat there for a moment, taking in the sun-glazed view of Rex's living room, before boredom got the best of him and he got up from the couch, trotting down the hall that contained the shower. He tiptoed past it so Rex wouldn't hear his footsteps from the other side of the door and entered Rex's room, sneering in disgust immediately; the place was a pigsty. The bed itself was covered completely in clothes that Weevil assumed to be dirty, so many of them piled up that you could hardly see the repulsive green sheets underneath. There were chip bags and a other bags of different kinds of food lying about, resting lazily about the room looking like they belonged in a search-and-find kid's magazine.

"Good lord, Rex's room is absolutely disastrous!" Weevil almost gagged at the sight. He gazed around the cluttered room, the foreign sight of disorganization troubling on his eyes. He contemplated cleaning the place up a bit but immediately dismissed it; for one, Weevil was a germaphobe – he wouldn't touch Rex's belongings with a 10-foot pole; and for another thing, Rex would be _livid_ if Weevil tampered with his stuff. The dino-nerd was possessive of his stuff, guarding it constantly – if Weevil went through his trash he'd likely get in trouble with the stronger boy, and after being saved by him that was the last thing Weevil wanted to accomplish. His eyes fell on the edge of a magazine poking out from underneath Rex's bed, and curiosity got the best of him almost immediately as he walked over a mountain of discarded items to get to the magazine.

_Rex reads literature? _Weevil asked as he pulled the magazine out from under the bed, shocked to find it was a Playboy magazine – the full frontal of a rather attractive girl adorned the outside cover, bringing a hot blush to Weevil's cheeks. "I'm not surprised." He coughed, his voice cracking slightly as he put the magazine back where he found it. "It would be just like dino-brain to have a skin-mag or two lying about… ugh, I bet there are more under his bed."

Tilting his nose up in disgust, Weevil walked out of the room just in time; he could hear the water from the shower cease and Rex's footsteps move about the small room. Weevil walked to the couch and sat down just as the door to the bathroom opened, waiting for a few minutes until Rex walked out in a clean t-shirt and short. His wet hair hung damply over his shoulders, darkened by the water and stick-straight against his back.

"Did you manage to keep out of my room?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Weevil lied smoothly. Rex nodded in satisfaction and pointed to the bathroom.

"You can shower if you want – you'll probably want to. And don't even start on clothing or how much you hate this dump; I'll provide you with _clean_ clothes. If you don't want to shower you can continue walking around covered in blood, though I think you'll take up my offer."

Weevil grumbled angrily for a moment as he weighed the pros and cons of taking a shower at Rex's place. He prayed that the older teen would respect his privacy and not barge in while Weevil was showering or end up not giving him clothes like he promised, though the germaphobe side of him _hated_ being covered in his own blood and his skin felt like it was crawling in the musty atmosphere of Rex's apartment. Finally, Weevil sighed and gave in to the temptation, growling vaguely about how Rex better have soap for him to use. As Weevil went to take a shower, Rex followed behind and went back into his room, sitting on his bed tiredly. He groaned and looked around the room, making sure nothing had been disturbed, when his eyes fell on his magazine that he was sure had been moved – it was significantly more exposed than it had been earlier. Rex smirked, pulling the skin-mag out from under his bed. He flipped through a few pages lazily before returning it to its rightful spot, noting that he had to tease Weevil about messing with his magazines. He relaxed on the bed until he heard the water turn off in the next room and the door open slightly.

"Got a towel, dino-brain?"

"Give me a moment and I'll get you one." Rex called back, getting up and grabbing a clean towel from a stack on his dresser. He walked out into the hallway and turned away from the slightly opened door as he blindly handed the towel out to Weevil. He felt slender, slippery fingers over his own for but a moment before the towel was taken from his grasp.

"Thanks. And do you think you can get me some clothes…?"

"Coming right up." Rex called in a faux-British accent as he went back into his room. Coming out with a white t-shirt, boxers, shorts, and a plastic bag for Weevil's stained clothes, he once more blindly handed them to the Bug-boy. He retreated to the living room until Weevil came out, looking a great deal better than he had been beforehand.

"Thanks." Weevil inched his glasses further up his nose. "So what do we do now that you're insistent that we skip today?"

Rex shrugged. "I don't know, ants-for-brains. I'm not the smart one of the group, last time I checked."

"Gods, Rex, what am I going to do? Mother's going to flip when she learns I've up and skipped school and gotten in a fight…" Weevil sighed, suddenly feeling the intensity of the situation they were in. "I'm injured in multiple spots on my body and I have at least three different homework assignments I need to have graded today!"

"I told you – I don't give a damn about school. For all I care, we're on holiday." Rex purred happily. "Calm down, you termite. You need to trust me."

"I don't trust anybody." Weevil spat, his lips quirked up in a pout. "Least of all you, dumb dinosaur."

"That's too bad. Here, I'll go grab you a hoodie and a pair of jeans; we're going out on downtown today while school's in."

"W-what?! Rex, we can't! What if we're caught?"

"Who's gonna catch us?" Rex shot Weevil an incredulous look as he walked back to his room. When he returned, he had a black Jurassic Park hoodie and a pair of off-white jeans ready for Weevil. "The safety patrol? You worry too much."

"S-shut up, no I don't." Weevil took the clothes from Rex and tried them on, unfortunate to find that the pants were the slightest bit too big on him. "Gotta belt, dino-brain?"

"Yeah, give me a moment. I'm gonna go change too." Rex walked casually back to his room, returning this time in attire Weevil had never seen him in before; as usual, he kept his red beanie atop his now drying brunette hair, but wore a black Slayer t-shirt and actual dark blue jeans on. Without his usual green jacket and brown jeans, he looked… off. Different from the Rex Raptor Weevil was used to. He stared at Rex for a moment, taking the sight of Rex's exposed arms in, until the older teen caught his attention. "Quit staring, moth-eyes. Take a picture; it'll last longer."

"Oh hush." Weevil's cheeks heated in a small blush. "I'm just not used to actually seeing your arms uncovered, you dumb dinosaur."

"Well get used to it." Rex smirked. "You look different without a beetle covering up half your chest too."

"Yeah, now I have Jurassic Park there instead." Weevil spat playfully. "Gods know that's much better than beetles."

"Exactly. Now c'mon, let's get out of here before the sun starts going down."

* * *

The walk downtown was excruciating enough as it was, and with both boys sore from yesterday's shenanigans they were bone-tired by the time they got there. They knew the arcade was out of the question – they had both visited there twice already. Today would be spent perusing other activities and above all, eating.

Rex and Weevil were now walking down the streets of the busy downtown area, pointing at whatever caught their eye. So far, they hadn't seen much that interested them; Rex checked out movie posters for the newest Jurassic Park remake and Weevil chased a butterfly for two blocks so he could examine it thoroughly.

"I'm starving." Weevil sighed as the butterfly fluttered off above the rooftops, watching it enviously. Rex walked over to him, watching the butterfly in disinterest as well. "C'mon, let's get some food."

"It's about time you suggested food. I'm as hungry as a rabid T-Rex." The older boy sighed as he walked alongside his companion.

"When aren't you?" Weevil replied flatly, pointing to the first diner on the side of the street his eyes met. "How about there?"

"Alright." Rex shrugged casually. "I don't care where we eat."

The two walked inside and sat down at a booth by the window, looking idly at their menus as they perused over the generic diner-food options. Rex eyed the French-dip with interest, whereas Weevil opted for a salad that had about as much flavor as he did to his personality.

The waitress, a plump lady probably in her 40's, came around and took their orders before leaving the skipping boys to their companionable silence. Weevil sat twiddling his thumbs until Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac came on from an old style jukebox, to which he responded by gasping and turning his head towards the music. Rex observed this with a tilted head as Weevil began to sing along, and he flashed a small smile.

"You like Fleetwood Mac?" Rex chuckled. "You've told me over and over again that you _hate_ music, Weeves."

"Yeah, well, Fleetwood Mac is my one exception. I'm surprised you even know who they are, what with your Slayer and stupid metal bands." Weevil crossed his arms stubbornly, sticking his nose up in the air pompously. Rex chuckled at the ridiculous gesture.

"I don't _just_ listen to metal, Bug-boy. I happen to enjoy Fleetwood Mac, believe it or not."

"I find that very hard to believe. Tell me one song of theirs that you know."

"I know some of them." Rex scoffed. "Rhiannon is a favorite of mine. So is Dreams. Don't Stop is pretty good… I could go on…"

Weevil's shoulders slumped forward and he nodded in satisfaction. "Good enough for me, dino-brain."

"What's your favorite song by them?"

Weevil blushed slightly and looked down, shaking his head. "I don't believe that's of your business, Rex."

"I dunno when it was a sin to ask what your favorite song was, but okay." Rex scoffed, raising an eyebrow curiously.

The two chatted idly for a while before their food came; the waitress exchanging but a few words to them as she gave them their trays. Rex dug into his French-dip without any further hesitation, sinking his teeth through bread and meat alike as Weevil watched him with a disgusted expression written on his face. Rex could feel the juices of the sandwich leaking down onto his chin, though gave this no further thought as he continued to devour his meal.

"You… you… you're disgusting!" Weevil spat out, disgusted. He placed his hand to his heart and gawked at Rex's poor manners. "Gross, dino-brain, now I'm not gonna be able to eat. You've ruined my appetite…"

"Lighten up and eat your food or I'll leave you to pay for it; and I know you don't have a wallet with you." Rex growled through a mouthful of food.

Weevil pouted, though without another word dug into his salad, eating in a much more sophisticated manner than Rex had been. He worked nimbly at his food, professionally almost, and Rex snorted after awhile, mouth full. "You are way too uptight, Weevil. Stop eating like some sort of mantis and actually dig into your food."

"Unlike you, I actually have dignity." Weevil spat back after he had swallowed his mouthful of salad.

"Yeah, yeah." Rex scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. "At least I'm trusting. Unlike you, uptight stick-bug."

"Stick _insect,_ Rex. And I believe I told you before that I'm not one for trusting people. And besides, at least my only thoughts don't come from my dick. You're such a horn-dog; I question how you can even function properly." Weevil retorted smugly as he took another bite of his dish.

"At least I'm not a goody-two-shoes." Although the two were throwing around insults, everything they said had a joking edge to it, neither truly taking offense to what the other said. "I'm surprise your head didn't explode from the realization that you'd miss out on your precious school time."

"Oh hush. At least I actually have priorities, fossil features. I actually know where I want to go in life and so I'm doing everything I can to get there. I seriously doubt that you even know what you want to do after high-school."

Rex gave a small glare, swallowing the last remains of his sandwich. "Archeology, dick-wad."

"Sounds like you." Weevil picked at his salad, keeping his eyes trained on his fork as it stabbed at different components to his meal.

"Yeah." Rex closed his eyes and frowned, leaning back into the couch. "How much _do_ you trust me, anyways?"

"Pfft. What kind of ridiculous question is that, dino-brain? I don't."

"Bullshit." Rex laughed, causing Weevil to avert his eyes up from his salad to the brunette sitting across the table from him. "First, not even five minutes after we meet up for the first time in a few years you invite me to spend time at the arcade with you, then after that fight you slept over at my house on my couch. That has to mean _something._"

"You didn't really give me much of an option." Weevil countered. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who locked the door so I wouldn't dash off to save my perfect attendance or something like that."

"And you didn't argue with me." Rex gave a cocky smirk. "Tell me that I'm wrong."

"I…" Weevil hesitated, lip quivering. "Oh shut it. Can we move on from this topic?"

"Hmph." A small sound of satisfaction rose from Rex's throat. "Whatever you say."

The waitress came back, as if on cue, with the boys' bill. Rex dropped a twenty on top of the check and the boys left without another word, slight tension rising between them. They paraded down the streets in silence, neither daring to speak first for fear of showing weakness.

"Weevil Underwood, you shameless skipper!"

The boys froze and Weevil turned around immediately to catch sight of the person who had caught the two boys off campus. Rex turned too, face to face with Espa Roba of all people. His indifferent frown quivered into a glare of hatred as memories of dueling the boy came to him.

"E-Espa? What are you doing off campus?" Weevil gawked.

Espa chuckled softly. "I'm simply taking my lunch break; Office TA's can drive to get lunch on their breaks." He turned his gaze to Rex, his jaw dropping slightly. "Oh my, could it be? Rex Raptor? Why it's been awhile, old friend. How are you?"

"Enough with formalities, Roba." Rex growled slightly.

"Hm? Someone seems unhappy to see me. I assume you're still sore about our last duel?" Espa chuckled lightheartedly. "It's been far too long to hold a grudge, if that's what's gotten you so down, Raptor."

Weevil walked towards Espa, turning to Rex in slight confusion. "You two know each other?" He asked.

"Yup! Raptor and I dueled awhile back during the Battle City Tournament." Espa flashed a smirk of triumph. "I kicked him out of the tournament altogether and won his Serpent Night Dragon."

"I want that card back, damnit." Rex growled lowly, placing his hand in his pocket.

Weevil burst into laughter. "Rex lost? To you? Oh, that's hysterical! Really, Rex, I thought you were a good duelist! You should have been able to hold your own against the newcomer of that time." He turned to Espa. "So what exactly brings you down here, Espa?"

"I should be asking you the same thing, Weevil." Espa flashed a sincere grin. "I was actually here hoping to get a gift for someone I admire when I happened to run into you two. So what's up with you? Skipping with old Raptor? My my, Weevil, I must say I'm surprised that someone of your stature would stoop to residing with _him._"

"Back off." Rex huffed. "For your information, he's lucky he isn't in the emergency room. We woke up late and—"

"Shut up, Rex." A warm blush tinged Weevil's cheeks as he cut his friend off. He turned back to Espa. "Don't mind him, he's bitter towards pretty much everybody."

"It's to be expected." Espa shrugged neutrally.

"Anyways, Rex stepped in between a fight Yugi picked with me. So I suppose I do owe the dino-brain…" Weevil pushed his glasses up, staring at the slightly taller boy in pastel.

"Interesting. Yes, I heard about that fight." Espa nodded. "I suppose you're lucky, eh? Anyways, I should be off on my search. Oh –" Espa pointed his index finger up, remembering something. "Are we still on for going to the movies tonight?"

Rex's jaw dropped slightly at this, his ears burning up in anger. He glared Espa down as the two made small-talk, Weevil happily nodding his head and asking something about popcorn. How – how dare he! This faux-psychic boy comes out of nowhere and – and – and he and Weevil are supposed to be great friends? Rex sulked. _When the hell did this happen? Last thing I heard about Roba, his freaky clown-family were off performing at the circus or something. _

"Well, I'd best get going, Espa." Weevil's words brought Rex's concentration back to the current events and the two boys waved goodbye at each other as they walked separate ways. Rex failed to miss the slight smile adorning Weevil's face, irritation burning in his core just at the sight.

"So when were you two all peachy-keen with each other?"

Weevil looked up shocked at Rex's rough reply, his contentedness fading into a much less happier emotion. "So when was that any of your business? Espa began attending Domino not too long after I started and we really hit it off. I don't know why you're so upset, Rex, but jealousy doesn't suit you very well."

"J-jealousy?!" Spat out the taller brunette. "I'm not jealous!"

"Really? Looks like it to me." Weevil scoffed, rolling his eyes. He pushed his glasses further up his nose. "You don't have to be my only friend, Rex – believe it or not, I actually have a few acquaintances who aren't you."

"Well isn't that just wonderful."

Weevil frowned now, adopting a defeated expression. "Why do you care so much about Espa, anyways? He's never done anything to you recently."

"I'm just curious as to why I haven't seen you hanging with ol' psychic-boy in the first place." Rex growled possessively. Truthfully, he was inwardly questioning his own reactions as well; it was similar to how he felt when Yugi had threatened Weevil. "And since when did you go to movies with anybody, anyways?"

"Since he invited me. I don't see how it's any concern of yours."

The hard edge to Weevil's voice cut Rex like a switchblade, and he finally sighed, giving up. "Fine, fine. I'll stop. So sorry, Weeves."

"Good. Now can we go back to your apartment? I need to get my stuff so I can head home." Weevil took Rex's look of slight shock surprisingly well. "What? I have to leave at some time, and with my parents being as stressful as they are, I can't afford to put off returning home any longer. Besides, I'm itching to get out of your clothes." He looked down at Rex's clothes in disgust. "I feel like my pants are going to slide down to my ankles."

"M'kay. It's about time we headed home anyways." Rex shrugged, allowing himself to forget about Roba.

* * *

As Rex and Weevil walked down the stone path to Terrace Forests, Weevil sprinted forwards to get to the door, stopping to a halt in the middle of the path. He took a few steps backwards and turned to Rex for reassurance.

"Rex…" He called out warningly. "There are some shady looking guys in front of your apartment…"

Rex, who had been looking down at his nails for whatever reason, averted his gaze to Weevil at this time, stopping as well when he viewed the kids who were in front of his apartment. There were two teenage boys, both raggedy looking and blonde leaning against a Pickup truck. They took one look at Rex and smirked, the taller of the two walking down the path to meet up with him. He had a beanie on, much like Rex's, and shaggy blonde hair that was so long Weevil questioned how he could see from under it.

Weevil shrieked in terror and hastily made his way to Rex, who in turn walked towards the approaching figure. "Dylan McGee it's been too long!"

"Raptor!" The two high-fived each other, smiling knowingly. Rex turned and looked at the Pickup truck the other blonde, whose hair was in a surprisingly masculine-looking ponytail, was leaning against.

"Dalton." Rex smirked and made his way to the other boy, leaving Weevil standing there in utter shock. The blonde sauntered towards him and they exchanged a handshake before he turned to the car. "You brought ol' King Rex to me! How'd you find the place?"

"Yer stepdad gave us the address, dude." Dylan laughed airily, slapping Rex on the back. Weevil's eyebrow quirked behind his glasses at this and he questioned the sobriety level of the two boys. They both spoke in a rather stereotypical almost surfer-like accent, smiling lazily at nothing. "He told us to drop of yer car. He left this morning for good, dude, he's outta your house for good now."

"Good, it was time that bastard got outta my house." Rex smirked back. "How are you two gonna get home?"

"Dalton brought his car." Dylan pointed at a black Mustang, rather impressive in its condition.

"Bro." Dalton spoke up now. "Blue Ridge has been like, too boring since you've left. We don't have our main man with us anymore!"

"Damn straight!" Dylan broke in. "It's just not the same, yanno?"

"I know." Rex nodded sadly.

"You better appreciate ol' King Rex for us." Dalton gave a lazy smirk and ran his hand through his light blonde hair. "Gotcha a little present in the car, dude, you're gonna love it. Suped it up for ya too."

Rex turned to get a clear view of the car, nodding in approval. He fingered along the edge where the logo to his hat had been spray-painted on the door. "Not too shabby! I'll have to ring you guys up sometime; I miss you all so much. Is that all you guys came here for?" Rex asked.

"M'hmm. We should get heading off now; we're skipping." Dalton nodded.

"Haha, funny, Weeves and I were today too." Rex tilted his head to look at his Bug-boy, who just glared at the three of them in obvious disapproval.

"You hang out with that nerd?" Dylan scoffed. "Man, Domino must _suck._"

"W-why I oughta!" Weevil sputtered, though was ultimately ignored.

"I'll catch you guys later, okay?" Rex gave a lazy smile.

"Alright, dude. See ya!"

The two boys made their way to the black Mustang and drove off, leaving Weevil and Rex in the dust. After Weevil was sure they were gone for good, he turned and marched straight up to Rex, glaring at him dangerously.

"And just what the _hell_ was that?!"

"What was it you told me?" Rex asked, sickly-sweet. "'I actually have a few acquaintances who aren't you'? Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Y-yes, but at least Espa isn't a total pot-head! Rex!" Weevil whined.

"It doesn't matter now; all I really care about is that I got ol' King Rex back." Rex smiled proudly at his car and Weevil turned to truly examine the large Pickup. The license plate was custom made, 'RX-RPTR' written across the plate boldly. The Pickup itself was black, with the exception of Rex's spray-painted hat logo adorning the passenger side door. He proudly tapped at the side of the car. "Man, I missed driving."

"How the hell are you street-legal, dino-brain?" Weevil scoffed, crossing his arms.

"I'll have you know I'm a good driver. I just don't like driving all that much."

"What's the matter? Don't want to use precious fossil-fuel? Afraid your dino cards will resent you for it?" Weevil snorted.

"You make it sound dorky, but yes. Except for that last part, though, that was dorky as hell." Rex chuckled, not ceasing his smile even after he caught sight of Weevil's frustration. "Oh stop it, Weeves. They're not half-bad guys, you can't judge them."

"Except for I already have."

"Sounds like you." Rex flashed a smile. "Wanna come in?"

"Well no shit, fossil features. Gosh, does just being near them deplete your IQ by 20 or something?"

"I told you not to judge them." Rex sighed, slightly stricter as they climbed up the slightly rickety stairwells to Rex's apartment. He unlocked the front door and walked in, allowing Weevil to follow him. "I'll drive you home, Weeves. You don't have to walk."

"No way, I'm still unsure about your driving skills… I'm not dying today because you can't keep on your own side of the road."

"I'm street-legal for a reason, dumbass." Rex countered lightly. "I passed my driver's test fair and square, no cheating or anything."

"I don't really know how you could cheat during a driver's test… but if it were possible, you'd be the one to accomplish it, dino-brain. Now let's go before I change my mind about getting in that deathtrap you call a car." Weevil grabbed his stuff and followed Rex out to the car.

"Oh shush, ol' King Rex is the safest vehicle I've ever seen."

"You keep calling it that… is that like its name or something?" Weevil chuckled at the idea.

"Why yes, it is." Rex smirked proudly, climbing into the driver's seat. "Get in."

Weevil climbed up into the passenger seat to see a small present up by the dashboard. "I believe your… friends… have left you something, Rex."

"Oh yeah, they said something about a gift for me! Sweet! Those chumpasauruses are great." Rex smiled and grabbed the small white box, tearing it open without hesitation. Inside was a Serpent Night Dragon card, clasped inside a see-through glass card-holder. The top of the glass had been punctured finely, and a dark-green cord was strung through it, making it look like some sort of necklace. Rex took out the card and smiled at it, reading a small tag that stated in chicken-scratch, 'I know how much you like dinos, so here's that card that one freak took from you. Hang it up over the Interior Rear View Mirror and you'll officially be decked out in dinosaurs! –Dylan.'

"Sweet!" Rex smiled and hung the cord over the mirror. Serpent Night Dragon hung lowly, spinning around almost proudly as the cord twisted around itself. "That's so cool."

He grasped at the keys which were sitting on the dashboard as well and started the car, buckling himself in. "Ready to go, Bug-boy?" He turned to look at Weevil, who was busy buckling himself in as well.

"You know I have a real name, right?" Weevil responded. "And yeah, I'm ready."

"You'll need to manually give me directions to that old house of yours, yanno." Rex said as they began their journey to Weevil's.

"I know."

Weevil was shocked to learn that Rex was a surprisingly good driver, constantly aware of his surroundings without getting too distracted. He tapped gently along to some metal band Weevil didn't care at all for as they made their home, Weevil periodically telling Rex which way to turn or which street to follow. As the streets got progressively nicer-looking, their inhabitants less shadier by the passing street, Weevil felt more at ease, and finally told Rex to let him off about a block away from his house.

"Why?" Questioned Rex.

"Because I don't want my parents to see you, if they're even home." Weevil answered as if it were obvious. "They'll kill me if they catch me hanging out with you."

"That's reassuring." Rex scoffed, though respected his wishes anyways. When Weevil pointed out a sidewalk that he wanted to be let out at, Rex parked the car and let him get out.

"Thanks, dino-breath. I'll see you at school tomorrow, granted you're going." Weevil called with a wave.

"I'll try my best, for you." Rex joked, giving a small smile as he reversed the car.

* * *

Rex got home to an empty apartment, realizing once more that his stepfather was once and for all out of his hair. He sighed and relaxed on the couch for a moment, taking off his shoes as he enjoyed the gift of a quiet atmosphere after a crazy day. After a moment he decided he was thirsty, and got up to find out what to get from his fridge. He was surprised to find a six-pack of beer there waiting for him, unopened. He scoffed.

"How the hell? Was he really that stupid to leave a case here?" Rex scoffed as he grabbed one. His eyes squinted down to a slip of paper underneath the six-pack, and he pulled it under. 'Enjoy, Dalton' was written on the slip, causing the boy to smile; he didn't know how the two had gotten into his apartment, but that was the last thing on his mind as he went back to the couch to truly unwind.

Taking a sip of his beer, he thought about the events of the days over again, his thoughts immediately going to Weevil. Rex frowned and sipped again at the liquid, thinking over the bug-nerd thoroughly. When Espa squirmed his way into Rex's thoughts, the brunette-haired ruffian growled lowly and almost crushed the can in his hand, though his judgment got the better of him and he took another sip instead.

"Why is it that I'm so damn possessive of that little termite, anyways?" Rex questioned aloud, tilting his head to one side as he focused on the thought.

Weevil. The boy that had teamed up with him when the rest of the world was against them. The boy who had given him courage when he was at his lowest. Not even five minutes after the two had met after not seeing each other for a few years, Weevil had invited him to spend time with him. This boy had truthfully always been there for Rex, despite his almost constant negative comments or teasing.

A slight blush came to Rex's cheeks as he thought of waking up to the bug-nerd cuddling up to his side. He frowned, taking another sip of his beer. At the arcade, Weevil had talked to Rex about females, albeit briefly. In all honesty, Rex had lied about sleeping with a girl; the truth was that she wanted to take it to the next level and Rex did not. Rex was as much a virgin as Weevil was. He frowned in a troubled fashion, tugging at his cheek in an attempt to distract himself.

Rex had always been an open-minded child in many concepts, and liking gender was one of them. The teenager, so constantly hormone-fuelled, had long ago accepted the fact that he was just as interested in males as he was in females; the thought had never crossed his mind that he may harbor feelings for Weevil Underwood of all people, however.

"Nah," Rex scoffed, his hand waving dismissively as he took another sip of beer. "I couldn't like Bug-boy… he's too…"

He trailed off, however, and frowned at the thought. It suddenly made a lot of sense to him. Rex had grown much meaner as the years went on, though somehow kept a steady softness for Weevil. He bit his lip as he realized that Weevil was right; Rex _had_ been jealous at Espa's almost flirting. He hadn't wanted to admit it to himself then because the idea seemed so far-fetched, but sitting here in the dark by himself, everything seemed to slowly make sense and fit together like pieces of a complex puzzle.

His mostly good-natured attitude even when Weevil was an ass to him.

His willingness to get hurt just to defend Weevil.

The defensiveness he felt when Espa had interrupted their time together.

There was no way to deny it now.

Rex had fallen smitten with Weevil Underwood.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: So here it is! This is where the real shipping starts. This was by-far one of my favorite parts to write. From the time they get home to the end of the chapter is all heavily inspired by an RP I did with the admin of Weevil's account on Instagram - I dedicate this chapter especially to you, Suzy uwu

Anyways - Espa's possessiveness of Weevil will return in a later chapter. This is where I said that "Trust me" will become a big thing in this fanfiction, and there's an even bigger event that's inspired by this line.

I really hope that you all are enjoying this story so far! I try to fix typos in chapters as I find them, if I missed any, so if you see one chances are I'll fix it at some point on the future - you don't need to write a review saying "But Something-Borrowed you missed this one in paragraph 110!" because I'll get to it eventually uwu

As always, have fun reading the fluffy mushy goodness, my lovelies!

* * *

Rex got to school the next day to the sight of Weevil chatting excitedly with Roba about the movie last night. A scowl came across his lips as Roba talked animatedly, earning laughter from Weevil in response as they bantered on about whatever they had seen last night. Rex walked slowly, bag slung over his shoulder as he sauntered towards the two, intent on getting Roba away from Weevil.

Weevil took one look at Rex and gave a slight smile, turning back to Espa. "Alright, Espa. We'll have to do that again for sure, that was awesome."

"You bet!" Espa's eyes met with Rex, the happiness diminishing as their gazes locked together. Rex scoffed inwardly as he looked back at Weevil, a slightly fake smile crossing his lips. "I'll catch you during passing, okay Weevil?"

"Bye Espa!"

When he was out of earshot, Rex spoke up. "How was the movie?"

"It was great!" Weevil gave a wide grin. "Espa's really funny. He wants to go see another movie with me sometime this weekend, he said, a late night one."

"And why do you think that is?" It wasn't a legitimate question; Rex was sure that Espa was trying to get Weevil away from him. He knew it was probably paranoid of him to think such things, but he couldn't help it – Espa's false happiness around Rex was a dead giveaway to the brunette boy.

"I don't know." Weevil shrugged casually. "If your dumb troglodyte brain is trying to imply anything, I'm failing to see it…"

Rex sighed and shifted his hand into his pocket. "Then forget about it, Weeves. I'm not implying anything."

The two boys chatted as they walked, Weevil asking about ol' King Rex as they walked through the halls.

"She's an angel." Rex sighed. "I missed driving so much. It's awesome not having to walk to school anymore, y'know?"

"I wouldn't know, my parents won't let me have a car until I'm out of their house."

"That sucks! Driving rules, man. You feel alive."

"Don't let that feeling end up being the death of you, dumb dinosaur." Weevil scoffed, though kept an amused grin.

"You worry too much, Bug-boy."

"I keep telling you, my name's Weevil."

"And? I use your name some time, I'll have you know. You hardly use my name."

"Because dumb dinosaur fits you better."

"Maybe Bug-boy fits _you_ better than _your_ name."

"Oh hush, that isn't true."

The two paused by Weevil's locker so he could take out the necessary assignments for todays lessons. He sighed in a troubled manner as he shifted through a stack of work. "Thanks to you, I'm behind on all my assignments. My teachers are going to be very disappointed in me…"

"No they're not, and if they ask why you weren't here, just tell 'em you were hurting too bad to make it." Rex ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm already behind on all my assignments, so I don't really care either way. It doesn't make a difference that I came here today; I could have skipped and nothing would be different."

"Then why did you bother coming to school?" Asked Weevil half-heartedly as he crammed more things into his locker.

"Because I said I'd try for you."

Weevil's gaze shifted up to Rex, both confused and inquisitive. "You came to school just because you said you'd _try_ to make it?"

"I don't go back on my promises, Weeves." Rex stated, matter-of-factly.

The bell rang at this time, sending both boys groaning in irritation as Weevil frantically crammed everything he could into his locker. Rex vaguely told him goodbye and walked off to his first class of the day.

* * *

Two class periods in and Rex was sitting in an English class, drowning out the banter of the teacher while he slipped in and out of sleep. He noted sleepily that something must have happened, as the teacher quit talking and the sounds of students moving filled the room, though he failed to care much as his head slipped further into his arm and he sighed, shaking off sleep as best as he could.

A desk rammed into his suddenly, sending his head jolting up in instinctive shock. He glared hard until he realized that Téa Gardner had been the one to move her desk up to his. He tilted his head curiously, raising an eyebrow at the girl before he decided to ignore her and drift off to sleep.

"I wouldn't sleep if I were you, Rex." She advised him. "We're supposed to be working in partners."

"Interesting." Rex muttered sarcastically as his nose nudged into the crook his arm made when it bent slightly. "So why are you here?"

"Because I want to be your partner, silly!"

Rex looked up at her, face still nuzzled into his arms. She was being serious.

"Okay… and why, pray tell, do you want to work with me?"

She slid forward, eyes narrowing dreamily as she rested her cheek against the palm of her hand, her other hand working at drawing invisible patterns into the desk with her fingernail. "Because I don't think we've ever really talked before, Rex, and I want to change that."

A slight blush tinged Rex's cheeks. "Okay…?"

Téa smiled softly. "I heard what you did for Weevil. I think that's sweet that you went to save him and all."

"But I… hurt your friend in the process…" Rex continued cautiously, wondering where Téa was getting at with all of this.

"Everybody knows that Yugi's been terrorizing anybody gay since the day he got here." She shrugged. "They all thought it was time that he got dethroned, so-to-speak."

"So is the way of the rumor mill." Rex shrugged.

Téa chuckled, though Rex failed to see anything funny. "You know, Rex." She began, smiling again. "I think that we could get along famously, don't you?"

"I…" A blush shot through Rex's cheeks. "I guess I haven't given the idea much thought… but um… you seem nice."

"And that's a start!" She gave a wide grin.

"Don't we have an… assignment to accomplish?" Rex shuffled in his seat in slight discomfort; he had never really been this close to a girl willingly before, and Téa was the last girl he really wanted to be by.

"Yes, but don't worry about that – it's due Monday, and if you want I can do the work."

Rex shook his head at this. "I-I'm sorry, Téa, but I don't really think…"

"Don't you worry about it at all! I'll take care of everything."

Rex sighed and brought his cap over his ears, giving an uncertain frown as the girl in front of him pulled out the rubric for the assignment and began working without hesitation.

* * *

"And she won't leave me alone! She's tried to give me her number _twice_, Weevil. It's starting to freak me out."

Weevil was getting a hoot out of hearing Rex's discomfort with the girl, laughing so hard he could hardly breathe. "You… you've caught the attention of _Téa! Téa! _Hahahaha, that's absolutely rich! That girl's about as bright as a moth fluttering around a candle!"

"It isn't funny, damnit." Rex growled back. "So quit laughing. I can't believe my luck – I get a girl to like me and it's a chick I've just short of hated for years!"

"Maybe this will be good for your less-than-angelic reputation." Weevil pointed out, sliding his glasses further up his nose. "You obviously want to be known for hanging around females, not to be 'cutesy'—"

"Hey, hey, where the hell did that come from?" Rex growled lowly. "I never said I was a player."

"That's sure what you implied, ol' king of the dinosaurs. Maybe she's a blessing in disguise, you never know!"

"And I don't want to find out."

"Well that's cute." Weevil looked at Rex in annoyance. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I actually have plans with Espa today; we're driving downtown on his TA break to get some chow at one of his favorite restaurants."

Rex growled lowly. "That's peachy. Have fun with Psychic-boy."

"Rex." Weevil's tone caught his attention and his gaze fell once more on the shorter boy. "You need to calm down… your mood is vicious! What's getting to you so bad? You're snapping at practically nothing, and it's obnoxious."

"You wouldn't understand. I have an annoying chick on my back and you're ditching me for pretty-in-pastels. I feel _so_ good about myself right now."

"Well, not everything is custom-made to fit your ego, dino-breath." Weevil gave a slight snort. "If you want, I'll talk to you after school or something. But in the mean time, I have plans with Espa and I intend on meeting up with him to eat. "

* * *

The week passed on exactly like this; Weevil hanging out with Espa more often and Rex practically stuck to Téa. The more the week went on, the more stress was added atop Rex's already cracking foundation to the point where he doubted he would last the week with all his sanity in one piece.

Friday came and the school-day left them, Rex and Weevil now chatting about going to maybe see a movie for themselves this weekend. They were debating which movie to go see when Espa Roba interrupted them, interjecting in that flawless way he often mastered.

"Hello boys!" He gave a small smile.

"Good afternoon, Espa." Weevil adjusted his glasses as he turned back to Rex. "Anyways, Killer Moth vs. Red Saurus sounds fine. I'll get the tickets, you buy the snacks?"

"Sounds fine by me." Rex flashed a grin, pleased to see that Weevil was completely ignoring Espa. "Do you want a ride home?"

Weevil shook his head. "No, I believe I'll be fine for today. It's a gorgeous day and I wanted to stop by the park to examine some insects. I'll catch you on the flip-side, Rex!"

Weevil left the two and a thick tenseness overcame the two boys until Espa spoke up. "You know, Raptor, I believe I've been kind to you. So I'm going to ask a small favor of you, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, what do you want?" Rex growled back, significantly less enthusiastically than he would have if Weevil had been there.

"I want you to stay away from Weevil." Espa began calmly, earning an incredulous gaze from the taller brunette. "Don't think I'm blind to what you're doing; I think it's real cute. But I already called him before you even stepped into the picture, and I'm not stepping down."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I believe you do, Raptor." Espa frowned. "Heed my warning. I'm not blind; I may not be psychic, but you're as wide open as a book in every aspect." With that he turned and walked away without another word, leaving Rex standing there defensively. It wasn't until Espa was out of view that Rex finally got into his truck, starting the dino-themed car and driving off.

The ride home was full of Rex mostly muttering angrily to himself, tensely stationed over the steering wheel as he made his way back home. He was slightly comforted by the fact that it was the weekend and Espa would be out of his sight for the next two days, though that was short-lived.

"Fucking Roba." He growled bitterly as he parked his Pickup in front of his apartment. Getting out and heading up the stairs, he thought more over what the pastel-adorned boy had told him. It was obvious that Espa liked Weevil. But the random bit of possessiveness Espa had shown caught Rex off-guard completely. His own possessive nature rivaled that of Espa's, so alike that they both tried to get the upper hand over the other in a fierce rivalry.

Over the course of the next two hours, Rex had sorted out his emotions and what he was going to do; it didn't matter that Espa had warned him, Rex would not give up being friends with the only boy he had really allowed himself to be around. If Espa didn't like that, he could deal with it himself and get over it, Rex decided with a nod of finality.

He had been drifting off into a slumber when his phone that had been sitting on the arm of the couch vibrated, alerting him of a notification. Rex lazily grabbed for his phone, quirking an eyebrow in dull interest as he checked his text messages.

_ Hey dino-breath. _It was Weevil. _I wanted to know if you wanted to catch the movie tonight instead of wait for tomorrow? I don't know how badly this will hurt your schedule but tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me and I might not be able to make it then._

Rex gave a small smile, weighing the pros and cons of going out to see the movie with Weevil tonight. He could think of a million reasons why he should take Weevil out to see Killer Moth vs. Red Saurus, and finally the temptation was too much for him.

_K that sounds fine. What time does the movie start?_

_ Movie starts 8 p.m. Do we walk to the theater?_

_ I'll pick u up if u want._

_ Thanks dino-brain. Catch you on the flip side!_

Rex smiled softly and put the phone back at its spot on the arm of the couch, getting up and stretching. He decided that now was as good a time as any to get ready, so he sauntered into the bathroom to prepare.

As he pulled out a brush to comb through his thick brown hair, a thought came to his mind – should he tell Weevil he liked him? His mind instantly came to the conclusion of no, but he wanted to go past the immediate conclusion he jumped to and think more about the decision. Rex himself had just uncovered his feelings for the bug-nerd; was now really the best time to share that information out? It could potentially ruin their friendship, something Rex did not want to accomplish. He sighed and took his cap off so he could groom through his bangs, blushing at the thought of being in a dark theater sitting next to Weevil. Rex was surprised that his feelings for Weevil weren't at all gradual – he almost questioned if he even had feelings for the bug-nerd. Though thinking of the shorter boy brought a blush to his cheeks, and although it was a fast discovery Rex knew he harbored feelings for Weevil.

Rex was neutral on deciding whether or not he should confess his feelings to Weevil. For one, Rex was completely unsure where Weevil stood on terms with liking a certain gender; if he confessed he felt feelings towards a boy who was completely heterosexual, that would not go down so well in the slightest. On the other hand, something about Weevil struck Rex as a force less than hetero, someone who would either be interested in both genders or strictly his own. He eventually sighed in defeat and decided that he would play it by ear; if it looked like Weevil was displaying any sort of romantic emotion (though he doubted it would ever come to that with Weevil; the boy was so uptight that Rex figured if he ever admitted to liking anything his head would explode) then Rex would tell him. He nodded in finality and worked on brushing his teeth, content that their night out to see a movie was pushed a day early.

* * *

Weevil, on the other hand, sighed and bustled about his room, debating saying something more to Rex via text. Although he had been correct in saying that tomorrow would be a busy day for him, he knew that he would have had more than enough time to go see a late-night movie with that dumb dino.

"That dumb ol' dinosaur's probably still pissed about the whole Espa thing…" Weevil muttered to himself. He wasn't sorry that Rex was jealous, and wasn't looking to change his friends entirely to fit the stubborn brunette's desires, but in a way he wanted to make it up to Rex; Weevil knew the boy was possessive and disliked Roba with a passion. Besides, the boy wasn't too bad of a companion – Weevil had determined that, as crazy as it sounded, he actually enjoyed hanging out with Rex.

But why? Weevil never thrived on human companionship. But he was willingly inviting Rex to spend a night with him out at the movies. Weevil blushed as his smile faded; he knew well enough why. But was tonight the night to talk to Rex about the subject? He tapped his chin absentmindedly as he put on the hoodie Rex had let him borrow; he had forgotten to return it and the off-white pants Rex had lent him and wanted to wear them tonight.

"I guess I'll play it by ear; if dino-brain seems willing to then I'll talk to him about it, I guess." He decided with a shrug, grabbing for his phone.

* * *

Rex walked out of the bathroom, sitting back on the couch in relaxation. He grabbed at his phone, surprised to see that he had missed a notification while he had been preparing himself in the restroom. It was another text from Weevil, he discovered, and he pressed down on the contact so he could read it.

_Hey, remind me that there might be something I need to tell you tonight._

_ Like what? _Rex texted back.

_Not telling you dumbass. Wait & see. _

_ Ur a tease, u know that?_

_ Yeah. See you 8._

Rex smiled and slipped his phone into his back pocket, slipping off into a quick slumber as his mind gradually floated through thoughts of what tonight could potentially hold in store for the two duelist boys.

* * *

By the time Rex woke up it was 7:00 p.m. He knew from past driving experiences that it took about 20 minutes to get to Weevil's house and another 20 to get to the theater. He sighed and stretched lazily, getting up to go change his attire into something different than his school uniform.

He settled on dark blue jeans and a hoodie the same color as his usual green jacket, grabbing his beanie off the couch and putting it on. He walked out of the apartment with his keys in the pocket of his hoodie, locking the door behind him as he walked down to ol' King Rex. He eyed the car proudly, jumping into the driver's side without further hesitation. The drive to Weevil's was filled with the soft vibe of a Fleetwood Mac CD playing throughout the atmosphere and Rex's occasional singing along.

Finally, he got to Weevil's, and honked the horn lightly to announce his arrival. Within the course of a minute Weevil rushed outside, practically tripping over himself as he ran towards the car. He stumbled into the passenger side gracelessly, giving Rex a mean glare as he buckled himself in.

"Are you _trying_ to wake up my parents, dino-brain?! They don't know I'm going out for the night!" Weevil hissed once they had backed up and had begun driving towards the theater. "What are you trying to do, announce to the whole neighborhood that I'm sneaking out?"

"'Snot my fault you snuck out." Rex countered. "And I hardly honked the damn horn, give me a break. It's nice to see you too, ants-for-brains."

"How much money did you bring with you?"

"You _always_ ask me that when I'm with you, I've noticed. Gold-digger." Rex purred playfully, earning a light glare from the boy next to him. He chuckled. "I bought a $20. You?"

"Same amount."

"Then we're all set. Killer Moth vs. Red Saurus, here we come!"

The boys quieted down for a moment as Rex drove before Weevil spoke up, noticing the band of choice playing. "You put Fleetwood Mac in for me?"

"Whoever said it was for you?" Rex countered playfully. "Nah, I'm joking. Yeah, I put it in for you – I know how much you hate it when I have my metal in."

"Thanks." Weevil gave a small smile, listening to Don't Stop bounce happily through the speakers. The song ended abruptly and another song, Say You Love Me, began. Weevil gave a small noise similar to an excited squeal, reaching forward to turn up the volume.

"What album is this?" He asked as the song began.

"It's just a bunch of their songs I burned onto an empty CD. I was too lazy to go out and actually purchase a CD of theirs." Rex chuckled proudly, though he stopped as he listened to the song as well.

_'Cause when the loving starts._

_ And the lights go down._

_ There's not another living soul around._

_ You woo me until the sun comes up._

_ And you say that you love me._

"You turned up the volume to _this _song?" Rex chuckled softly as Weevil sang along. "Why?"

"It's a good song." Weevil offered with a small blush. "I like it."

Rex laughed. "This is one of their softest songs I've ever heard!"

"Don't talk crap about Fleetwood Mac." Weevil pouted. "You told me yourself that you liked them. Besides, it's _your_ burnt CD, so obviously you must have liked the song if you put it on there."

"Yeah, you're right. It's a pretty awesome song." Rex smiled laxly as he turned down the road that led them to downtown. The song's own upbeat rhythm kept their spirits relatively happy, and they chatted happily amongst each other about the movie until they got to the theater.

The boys got out of the car and walked to the ticket booth, happy to see that even though it was a Friday night the theater wasn't too busy. Weevil bought them the tickets as he promised and the boys walked in to get refreshments.

"See anything you want, ants-for-brains?"

"Usually I don't partake in sugary foods…" Weevil paused just long enough to give Rex a chance to interject, though he was cut off before he could even begin. "But tonight's a special occasion. Would you be willing to buy me an ice cream?"

"You money-spender." Rex teased playfully. "Do you usually eat kettle corn or regular popcorn?"

"I usually like kettle corn, though I never really get it." Weevil shrugged. "If you want popcorn we can just get that."

"Perish the thought, we're getting kettle corn. That stuff's delicious!" The two boys walked in line and Rex purchased the food, along with small pops for both himself and Weevil.

Weevil looked at his ticket stub over the kettle corn he had been carrying. "We're in Theater 8, Rex."

"Alright," Rex nodded, pointing to the right wing. "This way, then."

* * *

Once inside and situated in the very front row of the theater, the two sat next to each other and watched previews flash across the screen in disinterest.

"I call it now; Red Saurus is gonna beat that puny moth to a pulp." Rex whispered loudly, more to piss Weevil off than to actually call dibs on who would win the fight.

"You're an idiot if you think that, Raptor. Killer Moth's gonna be the end of that oversized lizard."

"Wanna bet money on it?"

"I've already spent all my money on our tickets and you wasted yours on those disgusting cookie-dough candies." Weevil scrunched his nose up at the chocolate-covered cookie dough bits Rex had purchased for himself. "We don't have any money to bet."

"Damn. Maybe next time, then."

As the movie started the two immediately quieted, digging into their snacks almost ravenously as the plot unveiled itself. The special effects were cheesy and the CGI monsters made both of the boys gag at how ridiculous they looked, but nonetheless they kept their eyes glued to the screen.

Halfway through the movie, the two monsters actually began fighting, to both the boy's delight. As Red Saurus pushed Killer Moth past at least ten buildings set in a city landscape, Rex leaned over to whisper in Weevil's ear, "Told ya Red Saurus was gonna win."

"Bullshit." Weevil hissed back. "Killer Moth's gonna gain the upper hand, just wait and see."

"It isn't too late to bet if you're so sure about that." Cooed Rex with a small smirk.

"I told you, we don't have any money."

"Who said we had to bet money?"

Weevil's eyes widened and he looked at Rex curiously, missing as Killer Moth flew up into the cloud-covered sky to retaliate. "What do you have in mind, then?"

Rex thought this over for a moment and the boys turned back to the screen, the question momentarily forgotten as they watched Killer Moth plow into Red Saurus. Weevil got an idea suddenly and excitedly elbowed Rex in the ribs, leaning over to whisper into his ear.

"I've thought of something I'd like if Killer Moth wins."

"Okay, what is it?"

"If Killer Moth wins, you have to totally suck up to Espa for a week." Weevil gave a devious smirk. "I know how much you hate him."

"God damnit Weevil." Rex growled, thinking of the best retaliation for having to abide by something. His eyes widened and a smirk came across his features. "If Red Saurus wins, you have to let me kiss you."

"W-what?! No way, dino-brain!" Weevil retreated into his seat, the lighting from the movie accenting the blush growing on his cheeks.

"I'd say it's fair. I have to kiss up to Espa; you have to actually kiss me." Rex laughed at the idea, earning glares from audience members. "That's golden!"

"T-there's no way I'd agree to that."

"Why's that?" Rex challenged. "Is it because you're an uptight little stick-bug or because you _know_ Killer Moth would never win against Red Saurus?"

"Why you—!"

"Just go ahead and say right now that Red Saurus will send Killer Moth to an early grave, and I'll call the whole bet off." Rex purred, a smirk written across his features.

Weevil thought the idea over for a moment, shuddering inwardly at the thought of kissing Rex. His dignity finally got the best of him and he muttered, "Fine, I accept your stupid bet. I hope Espa beats the shit out of you when you kiss up to him."

"And I hope for your sake that I remembered to brush my teeth this morning." Rex countered with a small chuckle before the two looked back up to the screen.

The fight continued, and as the battle wore on both boys began to feel the tension that came with each of their end of the bargain. For the longest time it seemed that neither side was getting the other hand; one monster would cause damage to the other in a number of ways, shapes and forms, and then the other would retaliate with the same amount of force that had been delivered unto it. But finally, it appeared that Killer Moth couldn't take the heat, and as Rex's smile grew Weevil's slipped into a steadily increasing frown.

A screech from the winged creature tore through the sound system as Red Saurus proceeded to rip off its right wing, sending Weevil into a feeling of hopelessness; there's no way the glorious moth on screen could hope to defend itself if it couldn't fly. Rex gave an almost inaudible squeal as the dinosaur began attacking its prey mercilessly, and as the moth was flung into the sea Weevil knew it was all over; Rex had won the bet fair and square.

The boys exited the movie theater the moment that the credits began to roll, a feeling of imminent doom spreading through his stomach. Rex sauntered towards where they had parked the car confidently, no doubt happy that he didn't have to kiss up to Espa for a week.

The two got in the car and Rex started it, surprised to see that it was only 9:15. "That movie was short." He said with a frown. "Want to go back to my apartment for a little bit?"

"R-Rex!" Weevil's mind immediately shot down the gutter, his face flushing in a warm blush. Rex took one look at his friend and caught on to his own implication, a blush of his own beginning to spread.

"I-I don't mean like that." He muttered quietly as they began to drive. "But you seem really tense. The least I can do for you is let you unwind a little bit and relax."

"Fine. I guess it doesn't make a difference anyways, so long as I'm home before my parents wake up." Weevil blew a piece of his aqua-green hair out of his face, adjusting his glasses quietly.

* * *

The two got to Rex's apartment a short time later, walking up to the front door in silence. Weevil sat on the couch first, soon followed by Rex.

An awkward silence enveloped the two, Weevil shifting uncomfortably as he prepared himself for what he knew was coming up. Rex watched the boy curiously, finally speaking up. "Lighten up, Weeves. You're fidgeting."

"S-shut up, no I'm not. And I'm fine." Weevil grumbled, shifting away from Rex as much as he could. Rex groaned and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Yes, you are. Why are you fidgeting?"

"I'm not. I'm bored." Weevil replied adamantly. "I'm not fidgeting. You're a lousy host."

"I think there's a difference between fidgeting and being bored, Weeves." Rex chuckled, though let it go. "What do you want to do?"

"Nothing with the likes of you." Weevil mumbled.

Another thick band of silence enveloped the two once more, Weevil occasionally shifting his thighs in a way similar to an impatient child told to sit in one spot for a long period of time. Finally, Rex sighed in defeat.

"You've been fidgeting nonstop. What do you want to do?"

"I told you." Weevil mumbled again. "Nothing."

Rex frowned in disbelief before a thought came to him. "Hey, you said something about having something to tell me… what was that?"

"Hm? What? Oh." A small blush spread across Weevil's cheeks. "I-I don't have anything to tell you. It's not the right time."

"Not the right time? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Gosh, you're a crappy host, Rex."

"Hey, don't change the subject." Rex scoffed gently. "What's got you so nervous?"

"I'm not nervous either." Weevil's lie was obvious as he stared intensely down at the carpet. "I'm thinking about my end of the bargain."

"Oh, yeah I almost forgot about that!" Weevil could have kicked himself; Rex had _forgotten_ and he'd went and reminded him about something he was nervous about doing! How could he be so stupid? Weevil groaned slightly, expecting Rex to just short of pin him down to get his bet fulfilled.

Instead, the brunette quirked an eyebrow. "Well you seem happy."

"Observation of the century, dino-brain." Weevil responded with a pout. "Did your troglodyte brain come up with that all by yourself or did somebody help you?"

"Oh hush… You know, I'm sure kissing a guy isn't _that_ much different than kissing a dame." Rex cooed in a singsong fashion. "Who knows, you may decide dames aren't for you altogether if you give it a shot."

"You're too bold for your own good, Raptor." Weevil scoffed, not stopping to try and deny Rex's words.

Rex shuffled slightly closer to Weevil, which was noticed vaguely by the aqua-haired boy. "And?"

"And I'd stop if I were you… it makes me nervous."

Rex cocked his head at this. "It does? Why? Do you not trust me?"

"Of course I don't trust you." Weevil muttered, his tone not convincing in the slightest. "I can never tell what you're thinking."

"Heh, that's alright." Rex chuckled good-naturedly. "I can never tell what I'm thinking either. But you really _can_ trust me, Weeves."

"I don't know if I can just yet…" Weevil pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Trust doesn't come easy for me."

"Yeah, I noticed." Rex replied flatly. "But hey, whatever fits you, Bug-boy."

"Weevil." The aqua-haired duelist now stared at his brunette companion. "It's Weevil. You hardly ever call me by my real name."

"Fine." Rex gave a small, genuine smile. "Weevil."

"Thank you." Weevil sighed in satisfaction at hearing his name. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Haha, no." Rex shook his head, smile growing slightly. "I call you by your name _sometimes_, I'll have you know."

"Not nearly often enough for my liking."

"I'll have to remember that." Rex sang back playfully.

Thoughts of Weevil's end of the bargain swarmed through his head, and he suddenly felt guilty that he was taking so long to fulfill his task. He shuffled up to Rex to where their thighs were touching, looking up at the taller boy. His eyes ghosted over Rex's cheeks as Rex watched Weevil curiously. "Yeah… you do that." Weevil leaned forward and carefully pecked Rex's cheek experimentally. Rex's entire face lit up in a blush almost immediately and he gave a small, giddy smile at the younger teenager as his hand went up to cup at the spot where Weevil's lips had been but a moment ago.

"S-sorry… I um…" Weevil frowned and shuffled away from Rex. "I don't know why I did that… s-sorry, Rex…"

Rex shook his head calmly. "N-no, that's alright. I didn't really mind…"

"Y-yeah, I kinda figured from you… horn-dog."

Rex scoffed and rolled his eyes, but ignored Weevil's comment. He shuffled slightly closer to his friend. "Did you?"

Weevil shrugged, unable to meet Rex's gaze. "It wasn't foul or anything… just kind of odd… I've never kissed anybody in any way before, l-least of all a guy… You're a bad influence on me, dino-brain."

Rex chuckled softly, eyes lighting up. "And you're something else, Weeves."

"Tell me something I don't know." When Rex was about to reply, Weevil hushed him immediately. "Rhetorical, fossil-face."

"Oh."

"Anyways…"

"You know that when I said you had to kiss me I meant on the lips, right?" Rex asked testily. "Cheek doesn't count."

"Don't push your luck, dumb dinosaur." Weevil crossed his arms, a blush spreading across his face.

"Aww, c'mon Weevil." Rex laughed. "That's uptight, even by your standards."

"Your chances of getting a kiss from me get lower every time you make a remark like that, I'll have you know." Weevil muttered softly, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

"You're just saying that." Rex purred confidently, taking a risk and resting his face into the spot in between Weevil's shoulders and his neck. He bit the skin there gently, running his tongue along the sensitive skin. Weevil tensed up above him, shuddering as he drew in a shaky breath.

"S-stop doing that." He muttered weakly. "I-if I get a hickey from you, you're gonna regret it, dino-brain."

"Don't be uptight." Rex purred, momentarily releasing his teeth from their position on Weevil's neck. His voice hummed into the sensitive skin, causing the boy above to shudder in delight.

"I-I told you… your chances of getting a kiss lower every time you s— _Ahh, Rex don't do that!_" Weevil gasped out, his hands digging into the couch cushion as Rex now flicked at his neck with his tongue, softly dappling over a small area of Weevil's neck. His head went back instinctively, his eyes closing as he brushed away from Rex. He held onto his neck in embarrassment, his entire face coated in a sheet of red as he frantically shuffled away from Rex. "I-I can't believe you!"

"Hehe, is that the truth?" Rex gave a naughty smirk. "You should expect this stuff from a 'horn-dog' like me, Weeves."

"S-shut up."

"If you're so embarrassed about all this, then why _did_ you agree to our bet?" Rex asked, now striding over to sit next to Weevil. Their thighs touched again, bringing a light flush to Rex's face. "It's no secret that you don't really _want_ to kiss me… so why agree to a bet that would end in you potently kissing me?"

"You mean _potentially_, Rex, not potently. And I… I never said I didn't _want_ to… b-but you keep thinking with your dick and that's not attractive to me in the slightest." Weevil gave a small pout, crossing his arms.

"Pfft." Rex rolled his eyes and gave a small smirk. "That was a cry of pleasure coming from you when I licked at your neck, Weevil."

"T-that doesn't mean anything. And stop doing… doing _that_! That cocky attitude of yours, like you know everything there is to know about this… it's making me nervous and I can't think!"

Rex cocked an eyebrow curiously at this. "It does? Why?"

Weevil sighed, looking away from Rex as his blush darkened again. His shoulders sagged in defeat and he gave a weak shrug. "I don't know… I guess I really am uptight."

"And I wouldn't worry about that." Rex chuckled nonchalantly. "That's just you as a person, Weevil, you've _always_ been uptight. Listen, if you don't want to kiss me, I guess that's kind of expected and you don't have to."

"N-no, I promised. And like I said, it's not like I don't _want _to kiss you…" Weevil gave a sheepish smile before turning serious again. "But I swear to the gods, Rex, you better not laugh at me or I'll never speak to you again."

"Why would I laugh at you?"

"Because I'm sure my kissing skills aren't up to par with your own…"

"What?" Rex tilted his head slightly to the side before his eyes widened. "Ohh! You mean I'm a good kisser?"

"It's not like I'll have anyone to compare you to." Weevil laughed honestly.

"That doesn't matter." Rex shrugged casually. "And you know I won't laugh at you, Weeves. I keep telling you that you can trust me…"

"Yes, you keep saying that."

"Do you believe it yet?"

Weevil didn't meet Rex's gaze. "Almost."

"Alright, that's an improvement!"

"I suppose, if that's how you want to view it." It was Weevil's turn to shrug. "I'm sure it's against my better judgment, though."

"It probably is."

Weevil turned his head at this point, and in a sudden surge of bravery he leaned in just enough to press a kiss to the side of Rex's mouth, landing at the corner of his lips. He pulled away, cheeks red, and looked the other way as if nothing had happened. "Probably."

Rex chuckled softly. "You're gonna have to start warning me when you plan on doing that, Weevil."

"You had enough of a warning." Weevil muttered quietly as he turned to face Rex again. Before Rex could open his mouth to say anything in response, Weevil leaned in and pecked him on the lips, ghosting over his for barely a second before he pulled away.

"I guess…" Rex sighed dreamily, leaning back on the couch. His stomach was aflutter giddily, and if he had been alone he would have squealed quietly in happiness. "That wasn't much of a kiss though, Bug-boy. I'd say it doesn't qualify for our bet."

"W-what?!" Weevil spat out incredulously. "Of _course_ it qualifies! I kissed you like you asked, and you didn't even need to tell me to! I-I'm not kissing you again!"

"I want a _real_ kiss. Your lips were barely on mine." Rex countered flatly.

"Y-you don't get one of those. As far as I'm concerned, I've already fulfilled my end of the bargain."

"And why don't I get one?" Rex questioned, opening a closed eye to look down at the flustered bug-nerd sitting next to him.

"Because that's… that's what couples do!"

"Ah. I see…"

"So yeah, you don't get another one." Weevil stuck his tongue out stubbornly, earning a small giggle from the brunette.

Rex ruffled his fingers through Weevil's hair, the latter growling in irritation at having his hair messed with. "Then why did you even kiss me in the first place?"

"Like you said, it hardly qualified. It still qualified, but it was bare-minimum." Weevil gave a smug smile. "And people in Europe kiss platonically all the time, dino-brain!"

"Geography lesson, Weevil – if you haven't noticed, we aren't in Europe."

"S-so? What does that have to do with anything?"

"And I'm sure your kiss wasn't plantonic."

"Platonic, Rex. And yes it was! There was nothing romantic about that at all!"

Rex frowned, trying not to let his disappointment show too obviously. He thought for a moment before smartly countering. "Yeah, because a total germaphobe like you would just kiss me out of the blue without any romantic feelings attached to that. That's believable."

"I keep telling you, it was against my better judgment. Now can you drop it? I should really be heading home soon…"

"You'll leave when I feel like driving you home." Rex gave a low growl. "And you still owe me a kiss. That one you gave me didn't qualify."

"N-no I don't! And it qualified just fine! And besides, I gave you one earlier on the side of your cheek! You're fine!"

"Weevil god damnit." Rex sighed, rolling his eyes. "Stubborn fucking stick-bug."

"Stick _insect_, Rex!"

Rex got up from the couch now, striding towards Weevil. The boy quickly turned frightened and backed up until the small of his back connected with the arm of the chair. Rex sat over him now, giving Weevil an almost predatory smirk.

"W-what are you doing, Rex?!"

"I'm getting that kiss you owe me."

"S-stay back! I'll bite you!"

Rex couldn't help but chuckle at Weevil's reactions. "Calm down, Weeves."

"A-and how, pray tell, am I supposed to do that? You look like you're about to rip my pants off!" Weevil's body gave off small tremors, and he nervously shuffled under Rex as he awaited whatever Rex was going to do to him.

"Trust me." Rex's smirk ceased altogether, his eyes reflecting utter seriousness. Weevil froze at this, his words suddenly making sense. The smaller boy's breath hitched in his throat, his jaw dropping as he watched Rex speechlessly.

"I-I don't trust anyone." Weevil repeated. "I-I… I don't do trust…"

"Weevil. Trust me. Trust that I know what I'm doing, and that I won't hurt you."

Weevil's lip quivered, his voice meek in his throat. "I don't know what _I'm _doing…"

Rex frowned and gave a small sigh. "Then trust that for moment I know what to do. Please, just trust me?"

"And what _are_ you going to do…?"

Rex's hand gently cupped at Weevil's chin in response, pulling it slightly up so their lips were level with each other. Weevil's lip quivered in anticipation, his body shuddering under the older male. Although Rex figured that the aqua-haired boy was nervous, he could tell that it wasn't fear or intimidation in any way; simply nervousness that came with trying something completely different for the very first time.

"Do you trust me…?" Rex asked, his voice nothing but softness. The entire room went silent, Rex watching Weevil intensely as the boy searched for the right words to say. He trembled under the older boy's touch, his eyes locking with Rex's own; Rex had figured that Weevil was a complete virgin when it came to kissing or doing anything even close to that. It was natural that the boy was so nervous about trying all of this, because he was being shoved into it.

"I…"

He was nervous to the point of almost being afraid, so nervous about the unknown that it consumed his actions. Rex realized then just how unfair he had been in forcing Weevil into this, trying to make him kiss him from the start.

"I…"

No matter what Rex wanted, no matter how badly he wanted this, he couldn't do it to Weevil. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. The boy had already gone so far out of his comfort zone in kissing Rex's lips. Rex's eyes opened slightly as the realization hit him.

"I… guess so…"

Weevil wasn't ready.

Rex gave a sad smile. "Then I'll wait until you're sure you trust me." He sighed bitter-sweetly, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to Weevil's cheek. He could feel the boy relax instantly as Rex moved away from him. "Sorry, that it took me so long to realize that you weren't ready…"

"R-Rex…" He knew that Weevil recognized how big it was for the dino-lover to do something like that; to completely walk away from something that was so much of what he wanted. "Why… why _do_ you want to kiss me so badly, anyways…?"

Rex thought calmly over his earlier dilemma; figuring out if tonight would be the right night to tell Weevil that he had feelings for him. He frowned, figuring he had already been selfish enough in trying to force a kiss out of the boy. To blindside him with sudden emotions would be too much; Weevil would be overwhelmed and uncomfortable. "It isn't the right time to tell you, Weevil."

"No, god-damnit." Weevil huffed. "You tell me right now, Rex Raptor, or I'm walking home and I'll never speak to you again."

On any other night, Rex wouldn't have believed him. Tonight, however, was a completely different situation, and Rex didn't hesitate to believe that Weevil would cease talking to him if he didn't say anything. _How badly could I fuck this up more? _He thought to himself. _You've probably already scared him off… just tell him, Raptor… get it out of your system._

"I…" Rex's voice caught in his throat, making him pause as a tight pressure began in his chest. He sighed and shook his head, trying again. "Weevil, I… like you…"

Weevil tilted his head, taking a moment before his cheeks lit up in a light pink blush. "Like? As in—oh… I… don't know how I missed that vibe… I guess that explains a lot…"

Rex chuckled sheepishly in response, waiting for Weevil to get up and leave. When the silence that consumed them dragged on for thirty seconds, Rex averted his gaze to Weevil, surprised to find the boy's blue eyes interlocked with his own.

"You… have really bad taste." He gave a small smile.

"Oh hush, no I don't. My taste in who I like is just fine."

"But why me? I-I mean, no offense Rex, but that was really sudden of you…"

"Heh, yeah… sorry, kinda sprung that on ya."

"It's okay… I'd tell you that you're weird right about now… but I've already told you that."

"That you did." Rex gave a faint smile.

"If it's any consolation…" The boys locked gazes again. "I appreciate your company, dino-brain."

Rex brushed his lavender fringe behind his ear, looking down at the couch. "That actually means a lot to hear from you. Does this… hurt our friendship any?"

"What? Nah." Weevil scoffed. "It isn't like we have a conventional friendship in the first place… I-I mean, I don't kiss just anybody, obviously…" He adopted staring at his knees.

"Yeah. I guess that's true… yanno, if you want to go, I won't stop you."

Weevil shrugged, leaning further into the couch. "I'm fine being here for now. Do you _want_ me to leave?"

Rex shook his head. "Not at all. I'm just fine with you here."

Weevil gave a small smile, shuffling closer to Rex on the couch. He rested his head against the older boy's shoulder, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks as he smiled down at nothing. "Dumb dinosaur…"

"I'd call you something too, but apparently you hate when I call you nicknames."

"That I do." Weevil yawned, nuzzling further up against Rex.

"Pfft, it's probably like 9:40. You're tired already?"

"M'hmm." Weevil nodded slightly. "I go to bed early. Not everyone stays up every night to party like you do."

"Where did you get the idea that I party from?" Rex gave a small chuckle. "I'll have you know I only party every _other _night."

Weevil laughed sleepily and nuzzled his cheek against Rex again. "Wake me up when something exciting happens, m'kay?"

Rex feigned stretching, wrapping his arm loosely around Weevil. "I'll have to take you home soon enough, Bug-boy. But since you asked nicely…" He leaned forward to press a kiss to the top of the boy's hair. "I'll let you sleep for a little bit."

"Okay… and Rex?"

"Yeah?"

There was a pause. "That song… that came on earlier when we were in the car…"

"Which one?"

"Say You Love Me."

"What about it?"

"_That's_ my favorite Fleetwood Mac song. The one I wouldn't tell you in the diner."

Rex chuckled good-naturedly. "Figures that you'd like the softest song they sing, eh Bug-boy?"

Weevil's only response was a content sigh followed by something inaudible. Rex smiled lazily as he leaned into the couch, Weevil by his side. The bug duelist gave one last sigh before saying something that Rex barely caught on to.

"Just keep your hands to yourself…"

"You have my word, Weevil."

Weevil was silent for a moment before he chuckled softly. "No doubt, I'll trust you _just_ this once… don't misuse it, dino-brain…"

Rex sighed happily as Weevil drifted off to sleep. "You'll trust me, eh?" He purred quietly, resting his cheek against the top of Weevil's head. "That's more like it… now we're getting somewhere…"


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I have like... three more - four more? - big events in this story coming up, Weevil and Rex's sleepover being one of them uwu Sorry this took so long to make, I've been dealing with a small lack of motivation. But Chapter 8 is here now and... and...

I'm not happy with it.

I'm really sorry, you guys, I'm just not.

Everything seems rushed. I added the sleepover last minute because I had a good sleepover with my friends and I thought it would be interesting to see Rex and Weevil's take on one.

Spoiler Alert - no lemon happens in the sleepover. That would be moving way too fast.

Anyways, have fun with this crappily-written (is that even a word?) chapter of mine, which I hate and never want to see again uwu

Lemme know what you think, my lovelies~!

* * *

By the time Rex opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was the moonlight streaming onto the floor of the apartment. Bathing the entire floor of the apartment in a bright, saturated white light, Rex figured it must be at least two a.m. at the earliest, and turning his gaze to the appliances in the kitchen he was mildly pleased to see that he had been close; 2:28 shone on the microwave in blinking blue lights. The brunette yawned and stretched, his eyes adjusting to the dim lighting of the apartment the more he gazed into its depths. He felt a warm presence against his side shift as he sat up, and with a turn of his head Rex realized that Weevil had fallen asleep on the couch next to him.

_Isn't this the second time he's fallen asleep against me? _Rex wondered sleepily as he gazed down at the boy. Moonlight bleached his hair a bright, almost white seafoam green, his glasses catching the reflection of the moon. He was snoring softly, his face tucked party into his arm as he dozed off.

_I have to get him home… _"Weevil." Rex cooed softly, pressing his hand against the boy's side. "Hey, Bug-boy. Wake up. We have to get you home."

"Mmph." The sleeping boy grunted in protest as he shifted further into Rex's side, muttering something foggily irritable under his breath as he let out a tired sigh.

Rex rolled his eyes and gave a small sigh, shuffling away from Weevil in one swift movement. The absence of the other boy as a support sent the bug duelist plummeting into the soft couch cushions, a surprised yelp escaping his lips as his head lifted. "W-what the hell?" He slurred quietly, his voice hoarse with sleep as he adjusted his glasses. "R-Rex?"

"That's my name." The brunette cooed once more as he got up off the couch, dizziness riddling at his senses as he stretched. _Gotta do something about that anemia…_ he thought absentmindedly. "Come on, Bug-boy, we need to get you home. You passed out for a few hours."

"What time is it…?"

"2:30." Rex stifled a yawn as best as he could as his friend got off of the couch as well. "Come on, I'll drive you home."

"Are you a safe driver when you're tired?" Questioned Weevil innocently, rubbing his eyes as he yawned.

Rex chuckled softly at how childlike the gesture made Weevil look. "I'm a safe driver all the time, smart one. Try not to pass out along the drive there; you'll need to be awake when I drop you off."

"Mm." Weevil ignored Rex as he blinked into the darkness, walking towards the door. "Then let's go before the sun comes up and my parents find out I was ever gone."

Rex nodded and opened the door for Weevil, the two heading out to Rex's car. The night air nipped at Rex's skin, making him shiver in discomfort; he always kept his apartment comfortable in its warmth, and although the slight nip of the weather heightened his alertness it brought goosebumps to his skin, causing him to shudder instinctively and grit his teeth.

"Your apartment's like a sauna." Weevil stated with another yawn as the two walked down the stairs to Rex's car. "It's freezing out here."

"That's why I like my apartment warm." He muttered back, too tired to truly sound anything but exhausted. "I'd happily let you stay the night but apparently your parents will kill you if you're not home."

"You shouldn't doubt me, Rex. I'm stuck to their rules like a fly in a spider's web. I shouldn't have even snuck out tonight."

"Then why did you?"

"Because…" A warm blush came to Weevil's cheeks, unseen by Rex as the two stumbled into his car. "Because I already told you. I appreciate your company… and I dunno, I thought it was time that you and I did something together."

Rex turned the keys, starting the car. The engine roared to life and the car lit up. "I'd say. Took you long enough, Weeves. Did you like the movie?"

"Effects were cheesy and the entire movie had a huge let-down as a conclusion." Weevil remained silent for a moment before chuckling. "I liked the epilogue to the movie better."

"Epilogue? There wasn't an epi—" Rex grew silent then, stammering for a moment. "You're funny, Bug-boy. But I think the sequel will be even better than the epilogue."

"We'll have to wait and see, won't we dino-brain?" Weevil purred, his voice surprisingly seductive. Rex figured that the car was started enough by this point, and turned his head to his rearview mirror as he began reversing.

The two were on the road now, Rex keeping a wary eye on the road. Weevil had turned off Fleetwood Mac and was at this point resting his head against the window, just short of falling asleep. Rex cast an eye towards his friend and, at seeing that he was asleep, frowned and called out, "Hey Weeves, I said no sleeping on this ride. You have to be awake when I drop you off."

"And you say _I'm_ uptight!" Weevil huffed quietly, stifling a yawn. "You should have taken me home hours ago, Rex…"

"I was asleep too." Rex bit his lip. "Hey, Weevil…"

"What."

"About earlier… what I said…"

"What about it?" Weevil spoke up when Rex had trailed off. "If you're expecting an answer now you can forget about it. I… I need time to think this over, Rex…"

"Alright." Rex replied, nodding his head in finality. "Just… don't forget about it…"

"Dumb dinosaur." Weevil huffed as he rolled on his side again. "I won't."

As Rex continued to drive, he gradually eased into his comfort once more, eventually hearing Weevil snoring beside him. He sighed and rolled his eyes light-heartedly, giving a small smile as he neared Weevil's home. His happiness dimmed a bit as he thought about Roba, wondering if he and Weevil would do anything together this weekend.

"Rex?"

"Hm?" Rex jumped a bit in shock, his train of thought cut short by Weevil. "What is it?"

"I wanted to…" Weevil paused and grunted in effort as he sat himself up again, holding his head drowsily in his hands. "I wanted to thank you for going out to see Killer Moth with me. It's about time we do stuff like that again, eh?"

Rex gave a lighthearted chuckle. "Yeah. We used to catch a lot of movie premiers…"

"Before Yugi and his crew trounced us…"

"They don't matter, Bug-boy. What matters is here and now. And we can make up for lost time… what we used to do together." Rex spaced off a little bit as he thought back to when he and Weevil were younger, and the things they would do when they hung with one another – seeing movie premiers, the free treats given to them almost regularly, simply enjoying the fans and people who idolized and recognized them. All of that had died with their popularity, along with a good deal of the boys' friendship. It was high time they got that back, even if their popularity wasn't included in it.

"Keep your eyes on the road; you're going to get us killed." Weevil growled sternly.

"No I won't. Calm down, I'm a fine driver."

"I think I'd like that. It was actually somewhat lonely without your company for a while there, dino-brain. I was beginning to miss what it felt like to have a companion."

"You had Roba."

"I mean before that, dumbass." Weevil huffed. "And please, don't overreact about Espa. That's what girls do."

"You gonna hang out with him this weekend?" Rex questioned, trying to sound as casual as he could as he turned down a street that brought him nearer to Weevil's seaside cottage.

"I hadn't planned on it. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me and usually my parents prohibit me from leaving the house on Sunday." Weevil scoffed and yawned. "Are we almost there? Good lord, are you driving at 10 miles an hour or something?"

"Speed-limit's 25, ants-for-brains. Kid's safety zone." Rex acknowledged the sign as they passed it, pointing a finger to it.

"It's 2:40 a.m. No kids are going to be out at this hour, and the ones that are resemble those creepy possessed brats from horror games."

"You mean like Alma Wade?"

"_Especially_ like Alma Wade. Except for she was 26 when she died, so technically she isn't considered a kid in the slightest."

"Holy shit, she was? She looks like a little kid! And how would you know this? You're a total chicken; I don't believe for a moment that you've indulged yourself with many horror games."

"I happen to enjoy F.E.A.R." Weevil retorted, sticking his tongue out. "And yes, Alma was 26 when she died. Chronologically she's 47."

"Guess ya learn something new every day." Rex chuckled softly. "We're almost there, Weeves. Don't fall asleep on me now."

"Keep your hat on, I'm awake enough to survive the rest of the trip."

Rex stifled a yawn as they continued driving, and soon enough they reached Weevil's driveway. Rex stopped the car as quietly as he could, rain gently sprinkling on the windshield as Weevil turned to open the door.

"I, um… enjoyed tonight, Rex." Weevil began as he paused, turning from the door to Rex. He hesitated a moment before he leaned forward suddenly, pecking Rex on the lips. "I'll talk to you later, okay dino-breath?"

Rex gave a small smile. "Hope your rents don't kill ya when you walk in the door. G'night, Weeves. Talk to you later."

Weevil hopped out of the car, shutting the door behind him. Rex waited out in his car until he was certain that Weevil had gotten inside, reversing his Pickup and beginning his way home, mind happily abuzz as he started on his way back to his low-rent apartment.

* * *

The weekend had passed uneventfully, Saturday and Sunday holding nothing prominent in their grasps. Rex had not spoken to Weevil in these two days, and although he desperately wanted to contact his friend he was afraid that it may not be the right time, or something stupid and girly like that.

Monday came quicker than anyone wanted it to, Rex waking up to the glorious beeping of his dreaded alarm clock. He groaned and slapped at it lazily until he finally hit the snooze button, getting up and stretching. His thoughts became slightly happier as he remembered that today he would be able to see Weevil, and his pace in readying himself increased.

As he slipped on his school uniform, he briefly pondered over the possibility of Weevil re-acknowledging the fact that Rex had confessed feelings to him. _No, Bug-boy's likely not to mention it anytime in the near future._ He sighed inwardly, frowning in a troubled fashion as he pulled up the zipper to his pants. _Just act cool. If he's with Roba, smile and wait for him to leave. If he's not, take him for yourself. You can do this, Raptor._

As Rex pulled the door shut behind him, his vehicle's presence rang clear in his mind again, and he grinned happily as he realized he wouldn't need to walk to school anymore. "Sweet!" He jumped up giddily and ran to the car, shuffling into the driver's side without hesitation. He glanced around the car, pride swelling in his veins as he eyed the gorgeous interior. The car in and of itself was glorious, even if other aspects of it left something to be desired; Rex didn't know _how_ he was going to be paying for gas atop other expenses – he hadn't even officially begun his job yet. He was scheduled to begin on Wednesday almost immediately after school at a pizza parlor just north of the arcade shop Weevil and he had been to. He smirked to himself as the traffic light ahead of him turned red and he turned his gaze from the road to his pocket where his wallet sat. Inside, a credit card from his stepfather sat, loaded with money. He didn't know how and he didn't know why, but his stepfather had for some reason given him that, telling him not to use too much money and to be careful with it. _Ha. What a fool. _Rex scoffed, grinning to himself. As if Rex Raptor could be trusted with money of any sort.

Though as much as he hated to admit it, Rex had been good with the money so far. He wanted nothing more than to get his stepfather bankrupt and in trouble with any sort of legal system, though he couldn't bring himself to go out on a shopping spree – he knew this was greatly influenced by his stepfather's alcoholic rage tendencies. _At least he trusts me with money, the ol' hag. _Rex sighed wistfully, the traffic light turning green.

Rex got to school a short time later, parking the car in the designated area for student drivers. He slammed the door to ol' King Rex and made his way to the main entrance of the school where Weevil usually waited for him. The demeanor of the brunette boy was surprisingly happy for a Monday morning, bounding along pleasantly towards the school.

Per usual, Weevil was sitting on a bench waiting for him, his nose stuck in a book presumably about insects. Contemplating scaring the boy, Rex pushed the thought aside and walked down a small cobble path that led to his friend.

"Weevil!"

Blue eyes shifted from a particularly interesting page about queen bees, locking with that of the dinosaur duelist. Weevil gave a good-natured smile and got up from his spot on the bench, moving to put the book back in his book bag. "You're at school early, dino-brain. I don't expect you here for about another fifteen minutes."

"Yeah, well today I wanted to be early." Rex gave a lazy smile, resting his hand in his pocket. "How was your weekend?"

"Hectic and boring." A silent cue passed between the boys to begin walking inside the building, and side by side they entered the school. "Mother was actually home for a good portion of the weekend, surprisingly."

"Did they catch you sneaking out?"

"No, I got lucky." Weevil sighed in relief at the memory. "My father was passed out on the couch when I walked through the door. That old man sleeps like a bear; I couldn't have woken him up if I had a jackhammer in tow with me."

"Well that's good. I take it you don't sneak out often?"

"No, Rex, I'm a _regular_ contender in escaping the comforts of nightly sleep to partake in the riches of nightlife in the city." After catching sight of the nonplussed stare Rex gave him in response, Weevil chuckled. "Meaning of course I don't sneak out often. Dumb dinosaur."

"Gods, learn how to speak like a normal teenage boy." Rex sighed hopelessly.

"I'll have you know I take pride in my extensive vocabulary." Weevil huffed snobbishly, pushing his glasses further up his nose in an expression of his dignity. "It sets me apart from most other high school students that attend this wretched place."

Rex snorted. "I think even if you _didn't_ have your vocabulary you'd still stick out like a sore thumb. No, cut that. You'd stick out like a thumb that's been cut off and placed on another hand. You already do."

"You're insufferable." Weevil sighed crossly, though chuckled in amusement at his friend.

"I know."

* * *

The bell for the next class rang, sending Rex out of his pleasant daydream and tumbling into reality as his almost robotic reactions took over his senses; put books in bag, get up from seat, sling bag over shoulder, walk out door into crowd of oncoming students. There was no time to process the actions, only the vague notion that they were being completed.

Rex walked into his next class, English, with the sinking realization that the group assignment he had been assigned was due today. He sighed and rustled his hair under his cap, a small frown forming as he went to sit by his partner for the assignment, Téa. As soon as he began to sit he spoke, not wanting to waste any time in getting his excuse for not completing the assignment out.

"Hey, listen." He began lowly. "I kind of didn't—"

He paused when she held out a completed poster, decorated and gorgeous. She gave a proud smile. "I told you I'd do it for you, muffin."

"M… muffin?" Rex felt his face burn up in a blush. "Um, thanks Téa, I guess… y-you didn't… have to…"

"Nonsense!" Téa gave a slight purr, leaning further towards Rex. Half-lidded eyes met his gaze, causing an unsettling feeling in his stomach. "I wanted to."

"At least we won't fail the assignment…" Rex gave a small, relieved smile. "Guess I owe you one."

"I'll keep that in mind." The brunette girl smirked, her eyes glinting in a way that meant that there were more to her words than met the eye. Rex shuffled in his seat nervously as she turned back to the teacher, who had begun his lesson and was bantering on about Greek Mythology.

Rex's nerves began to settle by the time his teacher was a few minutes into his lecture, half-drowning him out as he began drawing on a piece of paper. His surroundings gradually faded from his mind as he focused on the artwork he was producing, immensely focused on sketching over thinly-drawn lines.

A note flopped onto the corner of his desk, distracting him as it entered his peripheral vision. His eyes glanced up at the folded-up paper, his mouth scrunching into a frown as he grabbed for it. He unfolded the paper as quietly as possible and was met with neat, feminine handwriting.

_I think I know what I want you to owe me._

Téa. Rex glanced curiously sideways, met with the small smirk of the brunette girl, her azure eyes trained on him. A blush spread to his cheeks as he wrote his chicken-scratch reply.

_What?_

He tossed the note gently onto her desk and waited as she took her time writing her reply. Growing impatient, Rex tapped the pencil against his desk. The note came flying back towards him, this time landing square in the middle of his sketching.

_I want you to take me on a date. _

Rex's entire face flooded with heat as his cheeks tinged a deep red, his eyes frozen over the neatly-written reply. He inwardly stammered, mind drawing a blank as he struggled to come up with anything even resembling a reply. Téa wanted to go on a _date_ with him? Why? What would a goody-two-shoes friendship preacher have to gain from wanting to go out anywhere with Rex Raptor of all people? Rex shakily grabbed for his pencil, unsure how to reply. Inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind and he scribbled down a reply messily, throwing the note Téa carelessly when he was done.

_You'll have to think of some other way to get me to repay my debt to you. I'm not interested in going on a date at this point in time. Try asking me again the next time the Cretaceous Period rolls around._

It certainly wasn't his most chivalrous response, and it didn't sound anywhere near as nice as a rejection note should sound, but Rex didn't care enough. He could hear the small shock of gasp from the brunette next to him, a satisfied smirk crossing his lips as he could hear her crumple up the paper. _Hopefully that will get her off my back._ He thought with a small sigh of longing.

* * *

"Dino-brain!"

Rex's head snapped around at the mention of his nickname, instantly spotting Weevil flagging him down amongst the crowd of students. He made his way over to his friend, an easy smile plastered across his face. Lunch had finally rolled around and Rex was looking forward to telling Weevil about his rejection to Téa Gardner.

"Hey, Weeves."

"What's new?"

Rex giggled at the thought. "In English, Téa Gardner asked me out on a date."

Weevil froze, his shoulder slumping a bit as his smile slipped into a pout. "And?"

"I told her to ask me when the Cretaceous Period rolled around again."

Weevil remained silent for but a moment before he began laughing, head snapping back as high-pitched laughter ran cheerfully. "That – that's wonderful! Rex you're genius! That's the best –" He broke off into such hard laughter that he couldn't speak. "—That's the best rejection line I've ever heard! And coming from _you!"_

"I told you I was genius." Rex gave a small smile of satisfaction. "Hey, I was thinking…"

Weevil took a moment to calm himself down. "You were? That's new."

"Oh hush. Anyways, I was thinking… you wanna go hop in ol' King Rex and grab a bite to eat somewhere? Or do you have plans with _Roba_ this lunch period?"

Weevil's eyes narrowed and he pouted again. "I keep telling you not to overreact about Espa. And if I did have plans with him I wouldn't be here talking to you, dino-brain. Are you paying?"

In response, Rex pulled out his wallet and proudly held out his stepfather's credit card as if it were a priceless artifact. Weevil's jaw dropped slightly.

"W-where in the hell did you get that?"

"Daddy gave it to me." Rex spat mockingly, eyeing the shiny plastic card greedily. "He's an idiot to trust me with it. So are you in or am I gonna have to go eat by myself?"

"I'll come along if you can tell me where we're going."

"How about you pick?"

Weevil thought this over for a minute. "Okay, that sounds good. Are you sure we're allowed to leave campus?"

"Espa leaves campus all the time around lunch, doesn't he?" Rex scoffed, an eyebrow quirking at Weevil as his arms crossed.

"Yes but that's different. He's an office TA and therefore he gets lunches off." Weevil stated matter-of-factly, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "It's like, some stupid office rule or something."

"Well if pretty-in-pastels can go off-campus for lunch, who says we can't?"

"Probably the school rules… but hey, what the hell. As long as you're paying, I'll go and eat with you."

"Told ya you were a gold-digger." Rex gave a lighthearted grin. "C'mon, let's go."

"Not a gold-digger…" Weevil mumbled softly as he followed Rex out to the main entrance of the school. The two walked to the designated area for student drivers mostly silent, occasionally throwing a glance to one another when the other wasn't looking.

"I swear, your car looks even dumber every time I see it." Weevil scoffed as they approached the dino-themed Pickup truck. Rex gave a light glare to the aqua-haired boy, shoving him half-heartedly in response.

"Shut up. King Rex is awesome."

"You realize that Rex in Latin is 'king'. So 'King King' sounds absolutely retarded, especially coming from a troglodyte like _you_."

"Well…" Rex pondered this over a moment as he unlocked the car and went to the driver's side. "Well, I don't speak Latin. So it doesn't count. And don't call me a troglodyte."

"Nor do I… but it should still be common knowledge. And I'll call you whatever I damn well please." Weevil hopped into the passenger side, giving a small smirk to the brunette.

Rex started the car, turning his head to stick his tongue out at Weevil. "Why should another language be common knowledge, anyways?"

"I dunno." Weevil shrugged. "I spend a lot of time reading; I guess I've just picked random bits of Latin up from my researches."

Rex snorted in laughter as he reversed the Pickup. "That explains a lot."

"Shut up, Raptor."

"What? I didn't say it was a bad thing."

"I can _never_ tell with you…"

"Yeah. I'm an energma."

Weevil paused. "… You mean enigma, Rex."

"Oh, you know what I mean." The brunette chuckled happily, smiling down at Weevil.

Weevil shook his head. "Keep your eyes on the road, dumbass. You're gonna get us killed trying to get to lunch."

Rex scoffed and as the light turned red, turned and pecked Weevil on the cheek swiftly. "This is my car. I'll do whatever I damn well please."

"Tell me before you kiss me, please…" Weevil's hand went to cup his cheek and he averted his gaze down at nothing, face flushing slightly.

"You don't deserve one. Besides, what am I going to say? 'Hey Weevil, I'm going to kiss you now'?"

Weevil laughed in spite of himself, grinning as the light turned green again. Rex cast a glance at him as he began to drive the car again, curiosity brimming at the lighthearted smile plastered on the bug duelist's face.

"What are you smiling at, Bug-boy…?"

"You, obviously."

"Why?"

Weevil chuckled softly and sighed affectionately. "You're dumb."

Rex's face flushed. "Yeah…" He took a glance at Weevil and smiled. "You tell me that sometimes."

"Because it's true."

"I sense there's something else behind it." Rex made a turn left, eyes on the road.

"What more could there possibly be to calling you dumb?"

Rex shrugs. "If there's anything more, you'd know it, not me."

* * *

"That service was atrocious!"

"Those chips were awful."

"My soup was _cold, _Rex. I could give a damn about your greasy chips."

The two boys walked out of the restaurant, steaming mad. The service had been awful, Weevil's soup was lukewarm and Rex's homemade-chips were soggy. "I'm never going there again." Weevil huffed snobbishly, holding his nose up in a pompous manner as his lip quirked out in a pout.

"I bet we're going to be late for class with how long that waiter took to get us our food." Rex chuckled softly.

"Oh son of a—!" Weevil inhaled loudly, pouting. "If I'm late for Algebra 2 I'm going to punch you, Rex! I trusted you in letting you take me out to lunch!"

Rex rolled his eyes. "Then I will personally vouch for you when you walk through that door to your classroom and take full responsibility. And _besides, _I told you that you could pick the restaurant, but _no. _You were too lazy and brushed it off with 'Why don't you pick if you're so smart.'"

"Yes, because that'll make things all better, right?" The sarcastic sting of the bug-nerd cut deep, though he sighed and resumed talking before Rex could reply. "Anyways, remind me to never go out to lunch with you again. And I didn't say it like _that_, Rex, don't twist my words. I thought that since you'd take me out to lunch, you'd know somewhere good to eat. Not making that same mistake again."

"No, because you're totally going out to eat with me again. Just not there. I swear, it's usually good!"

"I trusted you with a restaurant and it sucked. No way, dino-brain. This is why I don't trust amateurs with important things like food."

"If I let you pick we would have gone to like, some Indian joint where they served chocolate-covered beetles. No _way_ am I letting _you_ pick a restaurant. I'm lucky that you told _me_ to pick the one we went to."

"Uck! Insulting, Rex!" Weevil pouted, crossing his arms as they crossed the street towards Rex's car, parked in a small parking-lot a few blocks from where they were. "The day I eat a chocolate-covered insect is the day I actually let you kiss me."

Rex glared down lightly at Weevil, pushing him halfheartedly. "Oh hush. You know you'll kiss me in some point in time. I'm just waiting."

"For what?" Weevil asked with genuine interest.

"For you to trust me enough. I promised you that."

"… You're actually going to wait until I tell you I trust you?"

Rex nodded. "Yes. And I don't break my promises."

"I hope you know that day will never come." Weevil rolled his eyes. "I don't trust anybody, least of all you."

"And _you_ know that that's a lie." Rex purred playfully.

Weevil gave an almost inaudible, wistful sigh. "I know."

The taller of the two suddenly thought of something, subconsciously muttering _'oh!_' as he snapped his fingers. "Have you…" Rex paused awkwardly, twisting at a strand of his brunette hair. "Have you thought about… what I told you at all?"

"Rex, you tell me a lot of things." Though Weevil feigned naivety, Rex could sense him tensing up a bit. "You'll have to be more specific."

Rex grunted in defeat, deciding to be as blunt as possible. "About me liking you. When I began asking you what you thought, you cut me off and said 'I need time to think about it.' Have you?"

"No. Why?" Weevil bit his lip thoughtfully, sliding his glasses further up his nose. "Was I supposed to be thinking about it?"

"It'd be nice…" Rex muttered passively. "I mean, I don't want to wait forever for you to decide if I'm worth your time or not…"

Weevil shrugged. "I mean, I'm not repulsed by the idea of you liking me… I don't know how, but whatever works…"

"Gee, that's a relief. Thank goodness you're not repulsed, Weevil, I don't know what I'd do." Though his tone was gruff, there was a hint of honesty in Rex's voice; losing Weevil, his only friend, would be a devastating loss no matter how hard Rex tried to deny it. He smirked playfully and chuckled.

"Dumb dinosaur." Weevil kept his eyes anywhere but on Rex as they neared the parking lot where his Pickup was parked. "Where did you park your car?"

"It's around here somewhere." Rex's eyes lazily shifted to the area, skimming over the cars parked. He frowned and scratched at his head, shrugging. "We'll find it."

"Oh that's just great. I'm already going to be late for class, but now you can't find your _car._ If this were a date you wouldn't be getting another one."

Rex laughed and pointed towards his Pickup. "It's right there, calm your horses Bug-boy."

"Weevil."

"Yeah, whatever." The two walked towards the car, Rex opening the passenger side door for Weevil.

"Your random acts of chivalry are actually kind of cute." Weevil hummed as he hopped into the car. Rex met him on the other side, climbing into the driver's side.

"Gotta be kind to my Bug-boy." Rex replied simply as he started the car. "I'm seriously just gonna skip the rest of the day."

"You better take me back to school before you do." Weevil growled seriously.

"I will, I will. You have my word."

Weevil relaxed visibly. "Alright."

Rex reversed and began driving again, relaxing into the seat. "So how've you been, anyways?"

"Since when did you ask me that?" Weevil quirked an eyebrow curiously. "I've been good, I guess. My parents are out of town for the entire week."

"They are?"

Weevil nodded. "Doesn't make a difference anyways; they're never around when I'm home anyways."

"Do you ever get lonely?" Rex frowned. "I remember, when I had my dad, after I lost him it seemed so empty. It doesn't anymore though. Now I just enjoy being alone; it's a good upgrade from being near my stepfather."

"You get used to the negligence." Weevil shrugged softly. "It's more nowadays just a shock when I see them around."

"Yeah… say…" Rex paused for a moment. "Wanna come over to my house one night and have a sleepover?"

"What?" A look of disgust passed over Weevil's face, sneering at the thought of willingly spending the night at Rex's apartment. "A sleepover at your musty old apartment? I think not. Besides, who's to say I could trust you?"

"Because I'm totally going to make a serious advance on you while we're sleeping over." Rex scoffed. "You worry too much. And it doesn't _have_ to be at my apartment…"

"Are you suggesting something?"

Rex shrugged.

"I mean… what about school? I've never given much thought to having friends spend the night over the week… with my luck you'd never get up and I don't want to be late because of you."

"I get up just fine by myself. I used to have Dalton and Dylan passed out on my couch all the time, so I'm used to that kind of stuff."

"Yes but I'm not, and I'm sure they weren't passed out due to exhaustion." Weevil gave Rex a sharp glare. "Your car hardly smells sober as it is."

"Don't diss ol' King Rex's perfume."

"You can hardly call it that."

"So, do you want to have a sleepover?"

Weevil shrugged. "It would _not_ be at your apartment, that's for sure."

"So then where?"

"My house?"

Rex turned to look at Weevil, earning a squeak of panic from the shorter boy. "Eyes on the road, dumbass!" He shrieked, and Rex sighed and turned to face forward. "You're going to get us killed!"

Rex completely ignored Weevil's concern, brushing his brunette hair past his ear as he regained focus on the road. "So you'd let me actually sleep over at your house?"

He could see Weevil nod from his peripheral vision. "So long as you wake up on time and bring your own supplies. And _please_ don't leave a giant mess… I don't want my house looking anything like your apartment."

"Can do. And my apartment's totally fine, prissy-pants."

"You did _not _just call me 'prissy-pants'…" Weevil laughed. "You're weird, Rex. When should you come over?"

"Tomorrow after school?" Offered the brown-haired boy with a shrug.

Grey-blue eyes scrunched in deep thinking behind thick spectacles. "That seems a bit early… what the heck, why not."

"Score!"


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: THIS IS A LONG ONE OMG

Hi guys uwu Something-Raptored here with, FINALLY, part 9 of my Fanfic up!

This is where the real fluffy shit happened. I'M SO SORRY I CUT IT OFF WHERE I DID, I JUST DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO CONTINUE IT AND I KNEW I NEEDED TO PLEASE YOU GUYS WITH A NEW CHAPTER SOMETIME SOON

I have a couple references in this fic to things that aren't related to anything - one of 'em's for my friend on Tumblr, Kiwi-Tastic, who adores this fanfiction cx Hope ya spot it and hope ya like it~

ANYWAYS. I am so happy. Why "Saving All My Love For You"? LOL well I was writing the fluffy part randomly and the ending to "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" came on, and that song blasted through the speakers. Ever the romantic one, I was like "I CAN APPLY THIS TO SHRIMPSHIPPING SOMEHOW" and here ya go!

I REALLY hope you like it.

Have fun reading, my lovelies! uwu

* * *

School the next day had passed by uneventfully, and as the final bell of the day rang the two boys exited in a hurry, wanting to get to Weevil's home as soon as possible. Rex was providing transportation; he had told Weevil they would drive home in ol' King Rex, where a bag of Rex's belongings was sitting in the passenger seat.

"I don't know what we're going to do at my home for that many hours." Weevil had sighed as they walked towards Rex's car. "My home isn't even that interesting, anyways."

"Are you kidding? I always thought you were rich, Weeves. Your house is fine."

Weevil laughed. "Well, compared to your sorry apartment it's a mansion."

"I keep tellin' ya not to diss my apartment." Rex scoffed, shoving Weevil gently. Weevil countered by lightly punching Rex's arm.

"And I'm telling you not a chance, dino-brain!" Weevil stuck his tongue out, turning back to watch as they approached Rex's car. Rex opened the passenger door for Weevil, allowing him to get in.

"You know," Weevil began as he slid in. "You always open the door for me. How come?"

"Because it's shovel-rous."

Weevil shot Rex an odd look. "You mean chivalrous, not shovel. And since when were _you_ chivalrous?"

"You've called me it before." Rex shrugged casually, closing the door to his car. He walked around and got in on the other side. "And don't even tell me you were being sarcastic 'cause I know you weren't."

"I wasn't going to say that." Weevil scoffed, sticking his nose up. Rex chuckled and put the key in the ignition.

Weevil suddenly found himself watching Rex's Serpent Night Dragon, swinging lazily on its lanyard. "Dill-hole and Doll-face got you that card, right?"

"You mean Dylan and Dalton?" Rex couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, they did."

Weevil tilted his head curiously. "Tell me about them."

"Why do you wanna know about them?"

The smaller of the two shrugged as casually as he could. "You made interesting friends in the time you were gone, and I use the term 'interesting' because there's no other way to describe them that wouldn't come across as insulting."

The brunette shot a glare at his spectacled companion. "Then you're lucky you called 'em interesting. They're two childhood friends, and I happened to meet 'em when I went to Blue Ridge."

"Is that your high-school you went to before you came here?"

Rex nodded and backed the car up. "Yes."

"How did you meet them?"

Rex scoffed. "Since when did _you_ ask so many questions, Bug-boy?"

"Weevil." The boy corrected with a grimace. "And since today, now shut up and tell me more about them. Dumb dinosaur."

Rex rolled his eyes, though continued nonetheless. "Well, let's see… I met them my second day at Blue Ridge, sophomore year. I left a can of Coke sitting out on my desk and I caught Dalton tryna steal it." He chuckled softly at the memory, eyes glazed over with nostalgia. "Gave it to him for a quarter."

"_That's_ how you made your first friends while you were away?" Weevil sneered snobbishly. "Gods, no wonder you came here. Oh, you turn right on 1st. No dumbass, _right!_" He pointed, giving directions to his house. Rex nodded and obeyed his demands, following the route that Weevil led him on.

"Oh hush, you don't know them. They were awesome." He smiled softly at nothing. "They taught me everything I know about being a thief."

"So they were bad influences." Weevil sighed lightheartedly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he chuckled. "That explains _so_ much, yet so little – keep straight."

"If you're gonna say I'm a bad influence on you, save it." Rex smirked, keeping his car on the path to Weevil's house. "Anyways, without their advice and friendship I probably wouldn't be here now."

"What do you mean?"

The brunette shrugged solemnly. "My stepdad was a bitch to deal with then. Ten times worse than he was when he hurt me at my apartment. It got bad, Weevil… I needed their friendship more than anything."

Weevil froze at the sudden seriousness adorning Rex's gruff voice. "Meaning…?"

"Meaning I was thinking of doing damage to myself too, atop my stepdad's damage." Rex bit his lip thoughtfully. "Dalton and Dylan were there for me then. I dunno, they pulled me out of a depression." He shrugged.

"Hm." Weevil gazed at the Serpent Night Dragon again. "So they weren't all bad…"

"Yup." Rex remained silent for a moment before he chuckled to himself. The light ahead of them turned red, and as he stopped the car Rex turned around to reach over his seat, grabbing out a large, empty bottle of Malibu Caribbean Rum. Weevil gasped at the sight, cocking an eyebrow at the bottle. "This was the first thing we ever stole." He purred in satisfaction.

"How in the hell…?"

"Here, I'll tell you." Rex grinned mischievously, placing the white bottle in his lap as he recounted the event pleasantly. "This is one of my favorite memories with these two; be grateful I'm even sharing this with you… now you see, during my sophomore year of high-school…"

* * *

_Rex had been friends with Dylan and Dalton for about four months in his sophomore year of high-school, and one January evening the two blonde boys had gotten bored, calling up Rex and inviting him to hang with them. Not being one to decline a chance to hang out with the two of the select few people who actually tolerated him enough to consider him a friend, Rex had immediately said yes and rushed over without even asking his stepfather's permission._

_Rex had walked into Dylan's apartment excitedly; he had brought a bag of liquor-filled chocolates with him, as he knew they were the boys' favorites and always made sure to snag a bag from his stepfather when he went out to hang with them._

_ "Hey!" Dylan called as the brunette walked through the door. He tugged at his own green beanie, smiling lazily at the slightly younger male. "Dalton and I were just about to go head out to the grocery store."_

_ "Cool." Rex tossed them the bag of chocolates, Dylan expertly catching the bag as it flew to them. "Brought you some candies."_

_ "Righteous!" Dalton opened the bag without hesitation and reached in, grabbing the first chocolate he could get his hands on. "Thanks, dude. Love these things."_

_ "Wanna join us on our trip to the store?" Dylan gave a naughty smirk. "We were thinkin' of pulling a stunt, we thought you could help us with it."_

_ "Like what?" Rex asked cautiously as he joined the two boys on their shaggy loveseat, sitting on the arm of the couch. _

_ "Gonna go steal a Malibu Rum."_

_ Rex's eyes widened slightly. "What? How? You're gonna get caught!"_

_ "Dylan and I know a trick." The older of the two blonde boys gave a smirk, running his fingers through his hair. He stopped when he reached where his hair bunched into a low-hanging ponytail and gave it a tug, tightening it. "Yanno how they always have that dumb magnetic lock on 'em?"_

_ Rex nodded. "Yeah."_

_ "Alright." Dylan jumped in, smirk widening. "This is what we're gonna do, Rex…"_

_ The three entered their local grocery store, each one with a specific task. Dalton rushed ahead to his designated aisle, giving the boys a thumbs-up as he ran. Dylan gave a thumbs-up back, walking with Rex to the checkout stands._

_ "Let's pick out a sorry-enough-looking guy to trick." Dylan whispered to Rex, earning a nod from the younger boy. He looked for a moment before pointing to a particularly oblivious-looking teenage boy, who couldn't have been older than 19. He was chewing gum in his empty register, flipping through pages of a comic book. "He looks good. Now remember, send me a text when you have the bottle, and I'll do my end of the bargain." _

_ Rex looked up at the checkout stand number of the employee – 7, he made a mental note to himself. "Okay. I will. What's Dalton doing, again?"_

_ Dylan gave a naughty smirk and a chuckle. "Knocking everything in aisle 9 over to a pulp. Do you remember the plan?"_

_ Rex nodded, keeping his voice low. "I go and grab a bottle of Malibu while you tell the employee that there's trouble in aisle 9. You take him to where Dalton's causing a mess and I run to the checkout stand and press the lock on the bottle to the security lock on the register stand."_

_ "Perfect." Dylan gave a thumbs-up as show of his approval. "Remember to be quick; Dalton and I won't take too long. Don't get caught, and hide the bottle in your hoodie after you unlock the sensor on it."_

_ "On it. See ya when I'm done, Dylan." Rex nodded and rushed to where he remembered the alcohol aisle to be. His footsteps were light, his mind focused on only his task and how he would complete it. There was a rush of hesitation and doubt riddling at his mind, though he knew that now was not a time to worry about whether or not what he was doing was morally right or ethical. He licked at his chapped lips and made haste, finding the designated section for alcohol. He rushed quickly down the aisle, keeping his head low. The hood to his hoodie covered where his lavender bangs would usually be seen, and he peeked out from under the hood to find the label of Malibu Rum. His eyes met with the white bottles and he smirked, quickening his pace. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and opened it, typing furiously to his friend._

Got a bottle. _The text said._

_ The brunette grabbed a bottle and slipped it into his front pocket on his hoodie, walking slowly towards the checkout section. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he reached to grab it._

Got the employee distracted. _The text read. _Leaving the area now. Hurry!

_ Rex made haste, running as fast as his legs could carry him. He turned down the aisle and rushed to checkout stand 7, pleased to find it empty. He walked into the small area the employees stood when they worked and looked around frantically, eyes scanning over the area trying to find the security lock._

Shit. _The young boy thought bitterly, movements growing panicked as he failed to find the security lock. His eyes finally met with it and his heartbeat slowed in relaxation, and he pressed the white lock on the bottle to the magnetic sensor. The lock clicked in opening and Rex slid it off, hiding the bottle back in his hoodie pocket. He rushed away from the scene as quickly as he could, keeping his head low as his gaze met the floor. He could only hope that no one had keened into his actions, and if they had he hoped they would not follow him or become too suspicious; Dalton and Dylan had to have been done with their parts by now and were probably out front._

_ Rex exited the store, half-expecting the main theft scanners to screech at his shoplifting. His nerves were calmed more so when they failed to make a sound, and he slowed his pace as he walked through the entrance, reaching for his cell phone._

Got out safe rum with me. _He pounded onto the keys. _Where are you?

Guys bitching 2 Dalton about store damage. _Dylan's reply came. _B out in a sec.

_Rex hopped in place nervously as time passed, his mind skipping between walking further away from the scene and going in to see Dylan and Dalton. Finally, the two blonde boys exited the store, meeting up with them._

_ "Did you get it?" Dalton asked with a lazy smile._

_ Rex nodded and pulled the edge of the bottle out, the smallest bit of white from the bottle flashing from his hoodie pocket in response. The two boys nodded in approval and silently they walked back to Dylan's apartment, talking excitedly over the rush of thrill they got from their parts and how smoothly that had all gone._

* * *

Rex chuckled as he ended his story, smiling nostalgically as he rubbed the white bottle. "And that's all there really is to tell ya. Not much to add."

Weevil shook his head, though was obviously impressed by their plan and how smoothly it had been executed. "You're unbelievable. Stealing rum like that."

Rex chuckled again. "I know. But you gotta admit it was pretty damn cool."

"I guess I'm surprised to hear something so… clever come from _you_, dino-brain." Weevil admitted. "Though I disapprove of thievery – turn right at the next light."

"Oh bullshit, as if _you're_ perfect." Rex laughed. "Who was the one who cheated all those cards out of little kids when we were on top of our game? You were."

"Like I said, you were a bad influence." Weevil chuckled, throwing his hands up in a gesture of feigned surprise. "It must have been your bad-boy ways that corrupted me so. You're like a little parasite, corrupting and controlling my actions."

Rex burst out laughing again. "I must have been one hell of a parasite then! _'Yeah, we'll give you our autograph; just give us your rarest card in return!'"_

Weevil laughed as well. "Hey, it was a great deal! That little brat didn't know how easy he had it! Oh, you make a left here."

Rex nodded subconsciously and turned at the designated road, smile plastered on his face. "Are we almost there?"

Weevil made a small, crisp 'mhmm' of response. "Yeah. Make a left here and you'll be on my street."

Rex turned down the road and looked around, recognizing the area almost immediately. "Did we take the back way to get here or something?"

"Yeah. When you took me home at 3 a.m. you went the other way that takes you here." Weevil cast his gaze down to Rex's belongings, frowning. "There better not be anything illegal in there."

"Me? Carrying something illegal with me?" Rex scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous, Weeves. I know how anal you can get about me and my questionable side."

"And I have every right to be anal." Weevil stuck his nose up in the air. "Out of all the people I could be friends with, I'm friends with the boy who's partaken in drinking alcohol and probably a lot of other stuff I don't want to know about."

Rex chuckled as he parked the car in front of Weevil's house. He reached over and rustled his fingers through Weevil's bowl-cut, earning a small growl of irritation from the smaller boy. "I may have been friends with the stoner group but that doesn't mean I was one of 'em." He responded simply, grabbing his bag as he opened the door of his Pickup. "C'mon, let's go!"

Weevil hopped out of the car as well, walking ahead of Rex. He dug his hand into his pocket, pulling out his house keys. "Now, before we go in, there are rules, Raptor."

Rex paused at Weevil's doorstep. "Like what…?"

"One – what I say goes. Two – no funny business; please don't ruin any of my stuff or trash the place for your own amusement. Three – don't raid my fridge, my parents will freak if they come home and the fridge has been destroyed because _you_ couldn't control your hunger. Four – if I say no, that means no under _any_ circumstance."

Rex rolled his eyes, half tuning out Weevil's banter as he chewed habitually at his nails. "Mkay…?"

"Five – please try to get some sleep. I'm a fine sleeper but I don't need you on a midnight patrol around my house because you got bored. Six – make me late for school and I swear to the gods—"

"I get it, can we go in now?" Rex cut the smaller boy off. "Shit, you're gonna give me so many damn rules that it'll be dark before I even step foot in your house. Am I allowed in or not?"

His tone was not nearly as stern as he would have liked it, and Weevil laughed in response. "My home is yours for the night, dino-breath." He gestured as he unlocked the door. Rex walked in and took off his shoes, looking around the place.

"It's nice." He stated simply, eyeing the white interior. Dark brown leather couches lie to the right, an Argyle rug underneath a black coffee table. The kitchen was a room of its own, cut off by walls that left a small square place for entrance. To the left of the door, plush carpets lead upstairs, where a small balcony overlooked the area. "Really puttin' on the ritz type… fits you, Bug-boy."

"I do like my home." Weevil responded pleasantly as he entered, taking off his shoes as well. "And my name is Weevil!"

"I don't think I've ever actually been inside here before..."

Weevil nodded and shrugged. "I don't believe you have either. Would you like to take a tour of the place?"

"Tour? Pfft, you're too formal for your own good. Sure, lead the way!"

Weevil took off his coat and hung it on a coat rack, gesturing to the living room. "Seating room, kitchen's to the north of it." He pointed up the stairs. "Parents' room, bathroom, guest room, and my room are up there. On no account – I repeat, _no account – _are you allowed in my parents' bedroom. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Rex purred slickly as he followed Weevil up the stairs. They turned and walked down a small walkway, Rex looking over the balcony at the floor below. Weevil pointed to the doors as they passed them, naming what they were for. "Bathroom, parents' room, guest room…" He finally pointed to the room at the end of the hall, the largest one upstairs. "And this is my room."

Rex averted his gaze to the room, mouth opening slightly in shock; bay windows opened up the entire area to a soft glow of light, a small desk lined up to the left wall. An ant farm was seated on the desk, the walls around covered in small cases; small insects of many different species and sizes were on display inside. A bed with soft faux fur sheets sat against the wall the door was part of, and a dresser lined up with the other unoccupied wall.

"It's nice."

"I know."

Rex walked in cautiously. "Figures you'd have bugs everywhere in your room. Gods, that's actually almost creepy. They're everywhere."

"They're some of my most prized collections; when I said no funny business I meant it. Don't you even think about messing with their display cases, Raptor, or you'll regret it."

"Relax, relax. I don't want to touch your icky bugs anyways."

Weevil relaxed and nodded in approval. "Good. So what do you want to do?"

Rex shrugged, sitting down on the edge of Weevil's bed. He subconsciously stroked at the faux fur sheets as he gazed around the room. "I dunno. I'm not picky when it comes to doing stuff. What's there even to do, anyways?"

Weevil shrugged, coming to join him on the bed. "I didn't invite you to sit on my bed."

"Oh, my apologies sir." Rex replied, sarcastic humbleness tingeing his voice. "Might I ask permission to sit on the edge of your bed?"

"Oh hush, I haven't kicked you off just yet." Weevil scoffed, lightly slugging Rex in the arm. "But for future reference it'd be nice."

"I'll keep that in mind then." Rex gave a lazy smile before switching topic. "Hey, that reminds me! You said you played F.E.A.R; got a gaming system in your house? Maybe we could play a game for awhile."

Weevil nodded. "Yes, I have an Xbox 360 and a GameCube."

Rex's eyes lit up and he gasped. "You have a GameCube? Aww, I remember those! My dad had one!"

"You wanna play it?" Weevil asked as he got up. Rex nodded excitedly. "It's down in the basement. C'mon!"

Weevil led Rex down to the basement of his house, which was located in a separate stairwell next to the one that led the boys upstairs. An indigo GameCube was hooked up to a flat-screen television, sitting there vacant. The boys sat on a white loveseat, Weevil going over to a case full of games compatible with the console.

"Let's see…" he rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "I have a bunch of Mario games, Kirby… ah, Spyro—"

"Spyro?" Rex perked up at the mention of the small purple dragon, cutting off the muttering bug duelist. "What game in the series?"

"A New Beginning."

The purple-banged boy laughed. "I had that game when I was a kid! That's the one with where the final boss is that big black dragon, right? And she turns into a little girl like Spyro when you beat her?"

"It's been awhile since I've played the game myself, but I believe so, yes." Weevil nodded as he pulled the game out. "Want to play?"

"You bet I do!"

Weevil popped the game in and sat down next to Rex, handing him the controller. "Go ahead and play, I find more enjoyment in watching anyways."

"Are you sure?" Rex questioned, quirking an eyebrow at the aqua-haired boy sitting next to him.

He got a nod in response. "Yeah!"

Rex shrugged and began the game, soon enough finding himself playing as the small purple dragon. "I don't remember him having a firefly buddy."

"Maybe you played a different game then, and not this one. Now hush and play already!"

Rex shot a glare down to Weevil, though ignored him and began playing. Sparx laughed and took off, leaving Spyro on a wild goose chase to find the glowing creature that was, for whatever reason, considered his friend.

"Oh for the love of Jurassic Park." Rex growled under his breath as the firefly took off for the third time. "I'm tired of chasing you already, dickwad!"

Weevil laughed at Rex's frustration. "It's obviously a giant plot-device, Raptor. Calm down and let the game lead you into its next important plot development."

"Fucker." Rex sighed as the firefly entered forbidden territory. "Didn't even thank me for saving his ass from that Frogweed. Hey," he laughed suddenly and smirked. "He kind of reminds me of you, Weevil!"

"What?!" The smaller boy sputtered. "How?!"

"He's small, annoying, ungrateful; he's a _bug_ for Ra's sake… shall I go on?"

"S-shut up." Weevil growled, slapping Rex outside his head. "I am none of those things, you take that back!"

"Oh come the hell on!" Rex burst out as Sparx was captured by baboons, throwing his hands up incredulously. Weevil ducked to avoid getting hit in the face by Rex's oncoming arm, watching the older boy curiously. "Monkeys? Really? This is the worst plot development ever! '_Oh come help me Spyro, I got kidnapped by monkeys because I was an ass to you and led you on a chase across half the freaking country!'_"

Weevil burst out into laughter. "Calm down, dino-brain! You're getting worked up over nothing! This is more just an introduction than anything; it's teaching you how to use the controls and how to fight against enemies! Ra knows you'll be needing that information later."

Rex ducked theatrically as he went against the baboons, hunched over his controller as he focused on the fight. Weevil only chuckled. "Those things are kicking your ass, dino-brain. I would have thought you'd know how to play the game if you had it as a kid."

"I _beat_ this game when I was a kid." Rex growled, eye twitching in concentration. "I'm just rusty, that's all. My skills have fossilized as the years have gone on."

"Excuses, excuses." Weevil sneered playfully. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"When were monkeys allowed to operate dynamite?!" Rex cried as the leader of the group threw down sticks of the red material. Spyro dashed madly as the dynamite exploded, and Rex's lip quivered in irritation as the animals continued to gang up on him. "Where would they even find that, anyways? They're in an alternate universe!"

"I'm more worried about his blatant disrespect for his companions." Weevil sneered in distaste. "He clearly knows that they're going to fight Spyro, but yet he's still throwing sticks of dynamite in their general direction! How inconsiderate could you get? And those are more like baboons than monkeys, Rex. And I don't know, since this was a child's video game? You can't really question logic in a video game."

"I guess you're right… for the love of – these things are taking _forever_ to beat!" Rex sighed, throwing his head back. Weevil chuckled behind his hand, pushing his glasses further up his face.

"Good lord, Rex, calm down. I swear if you get mad one more time I'm turning the game off." Weevil pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. "We're about five minutes into the game and you're already pissed off. Calm yourself; while you may be amusing to watch while you're mad, it's illogical to get this upset over something as simple as a video game."

"It's not simple when it takes 50 hits just to kill these things." Rex growled back in response, hunching further over the controller. "And if you even think about turning off the game I'll kiss you."

He could see Weevil tense up out of his peripheral vision, a smirk of satisfaction forming as the spectacled boy edged further into the couch.

_Let me out of here and fight me like a… thing, whatever you are! _Sparx growled to the leader of the group from his imprisonment inside his wooden carrier.

"Not helping, David Spade. That thing's like 50 times bigger than you."

_I've had about enough of you!_

"You and me both, damned baboon thing. Kill him while you can, it'll make my job a lot easier."

Weevil chuckled softly, leaning back against the couch. He kept his eyes on Rex, eyebrows quirking behind his glasses at his friend's odd behavior. "Why are you talking to the television? The TV can't hear you, or did your pathetic dino-brain forget that?"

"I don't care if the TV can't hear me – oh cool, Spyro can use fire!"

"I don't think I'll ever understand you…" Weevil sighed wistfully, relaxing back into the couch as he watched the game-play.

_I gotta report to Cynder!_

"Ha, I _KNEW_ she was in this game!" Rex pointed to the screen.

"Congratulations! I think I have some doggy treats in the pantry I can get you as a reward." Weevil smirked, suppressing his laughter.

"Hey, thanks I – hey, wait a minute!" Rex froze and glared at Weevil. "Rude!"

"Hyohyohyo! Dumb dinosaur."

* * *

The game continued on for a few hours until the two began to get bored, Rex finally giving up altogether. "Turn the game off before I rip the TV from that wall."

"You wouldn't dare." Weevil glared crossly, nose scrunched up in distaste as he got up and went to turn the game off. He stared at an analog clock sitting on a table across the basement. "Well that certainly killed a few hours."

"What time is it?"

"5:30."

"Do you have anything for dinner?" Rex questioned as he got up, looking out a window. The sun was halfway down by now, a low hue of rust-colored orange hitting against the horizon as it faded to a dark blue. He wondered how it could get dark so quickly; even in January it usually took the sun another half an hour to even begin to inch its way down to the horizon line.

"No," Weevil retorted sarcastically. "My parents left me here to starve. Of _course_ I have something to eat for dinner. Let's go pick something."

Rex nodded vaguely in agreement and walked across the carpet, meeting up with Weevil. The smaller of the two looked up to Rex and gave a small smile, brushing past him as he walked up the stairs. Rex followed behind and let Weevil lead him into the kitchen, looking around the updated appliances in slight interest. "Nice kitchen."

"Beats yours." Weevil scoffed proudly, busying himself with opening a pantry. "I'm surprised you don't have maggots in your microwave."

"Eww, that's gross. I bet you'd like that though, wouldn't you. '_No dumbass, don't kill those glorious specimen, I haven't gotten my jars yet!'_" Rex laughed at the idea and how ridiculous it sounded, imitating Weevil's nasally tone to his voice.

"You laugh, but that's a fairly accurate representation of what my reaction would be like." Weevil replied smugly, crossing his arms as he shot a glare Rex's way.

"But maggots are disgusting. I'd nuke the little bastards if they were in my microwave. Press the button for two minutes and let 'em fry."

"Ugh! Rex, that's disgusting! You're going to ruin my appetite, dino-brain!" Weevil pulled out a few boxes of different stored foods. "Let's see… I can make macaroni, or heat up some burritos or something…"

"You talk as if I'm picky." Rex chuckled, walking over to join Weevil's raid of the pantry. He pushed a box of cereal out of the way, looking at packets of graham crackers and condensed milk. "Ewww, Weevil, your parents have crappy tastes in what to eat…"

"Oh hush, they like to keep _healthy_ food items around the house… unlike what you're used to, I'm sure."

"What is it with you and constantly putting me down, Bug-boy?" Rex scoffed as he pulled out a can of Chef Boyardee, eyeing the label curiously.

Weevil sneered, crossing his arms. "You're not allowed to touch the cans of soup. And because I can? I don't see you complaining."

"'Cause I'm usually pretty laid back." Rex shrugged casually as he put the can back in its original spot.

"Yeah, sure. You're about as laid back as a ticked-off Triceratops."

"What?" The older male shot a small glare Weevil's direction. "Am not. And it's not like you're any better – angry old hornet."

"I'm not old, nor am I venomous like a hornet is."

"You still have the temper of one."

Weevil walked over to a sleek black fridge, glaring daggers at his brunette companion as he opened up the door to the freezer. "Microwave burritos?"

"I'm not picky, that sounds delicious."

"Good. Nice to know that when it comes to at least eating, you're simple and easy."

"Yeah, but that's about where me being 'simple and easy' ends." The brunette watched as his friend opened the packets and slid the burritos onto a plate he had gotten. Knowing the time needed to cook the prepared meal, Rex sauntered over to the microwave and punched in the correct time, earning a slight nod of appreciation from Weevil.

"Good. Thanks, dino-brain."

"M'hmm."

Weevil slid the plate in and the boys sat in companionable silence while the burritos heated up. Rex took time in noticing the appliances in more detail; compared to his measly low-rent apartment, Weevil's home seemed like a mansion. "Hey Weevil, have you lived here all your life?"

Weevil nodded without hesitation. "Yes, I've been in this house since birth. What's with the sudden interest?"

"I dunno." Rex shrugged slightly. "I just wanted to ask."

"About about you, dino-brain? I know that your stepdad made you move a few years back… but where'd you live before then?"

Rex stroked at his chin in thinking. "Umm… I remember having a house with a white fence when I was a little kid… we moved when I lost my dad, and once more when my mom got married again… so… I've lived in… four houses? Five houses? Counting the apartment I live in now."

"Hm. I couldn't imagine moving." Weevil muttered to himself as the microwave beeped, signaling that their food was ready. He turned and opened the microwave. "Could you get me an oven mitt from the drawer there? The plate's gonna be hot."

"Oh move, wuss, let me get it." Rex smoothly pushed past Weevil, grabbing hold of the plate. The initial shock of touching something so heated caused the brunette to grimace, though he ignored this and pulled the plate out, setting it on the nearest counter he could lay his eyes on.

"You… didn't have to… do that, I could have gotten an oven mitt…" Weevil frowned. "Thanks, I guess… stubborn dino-brain."

"Hmph." Rex nodded, grabbing the burrito closest to him. Teeth met tortilla and the teenager tore hungrily through the soft outer layer of his portion of food. "You'd have taken too long anyways."

"Eww, eat with your mouth closed!" The spectacled boy scrunched his nose up in disgust at the barbaric display of manners. "I don't want to see your disgusting mouth at work _eating_! That's disgusting!"

Annoyed, Rex retaliated by sticking his tongue out, remnants of a mauled burrito clinging to his tongue here and there. Weevil gagged instantly, hand coming up to cover his mouth as he averted his eyes away from the scene. "Y-you… you're insufferable… that was the nastiest thing I've ever seen!"

Rex chuckled, swallowing the remains of the food. "Then you really _are_ a wuss. It's just food."

Weevil scowled, picking up his own burrito and making an effort to eat it as sophisticatedly as possible. The taller brunette quirked an eyebrow towards his companion, smirking at the younger boy. In one swift mood Rex went and squeezed the end of Weevil's burrito, causing the filling to burst out the other end. He laughed in delight as the fillings went all over Weevil's hands, dropping down to the floor below in brown, messy droplets.

_"You bastard!"_ Weevil shrieked, throwing the empty shell of the burrito back on the plate. "What the hell was that for? That was my meal, you asshole – you've gotten food all over! Clean it up!"

"Me? Why should _I_ clean it up?"

"Because if you don't I'm kicking you out of my house! I don't know why I even bothered to invite you over in the first place!" Weevil clenched his fists and stomped down onto the kitchen floor, seething with anger.

Rex's face light up in a smirk of amusement, a throaty chuckle escaping from his throat at the sudden break in Weevil's composure. "Fine, fine, calm down before you explode. Gods know we don't want bug guts all over the kitchen."

"V-very funny." Weevil huffed, tilting his face away from Rex as he calmed himself down. "This is exactly why I _don't_ trust you sometimes."

The taller boy walked towards the sink, where he had recognized towels to be. Weevil walked over as well, and as Rex grabbed a small towel Weevil turned on the water to clean himself up. Rex whistled along to 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' as he reduced himself to cleaning, bobbing his head slightly in rhythm with the high-pitched whistles of the song. He smirked and got back up after the mess was clean, turning to toss the cloth back into the sink.

The cloth was about two inches away from landing right in the middle of Weevil's bowl cut, and Rex burst out laughing at the close call. Weevil's head snapped from looking down at his hands scrubbing soap together, eyebrow quirking at the dinosaur lover. "You better apologize for ruining my meal. You're lucky I wasn't very hungry."

"Yeah yeah, RIP Weevil's burrito." Rex spat in light sarcasm, earning a shake of Weevil's head in response as the aqua-haired boy sighed.

"What am I gonna do with you…"

"Find something else for us to spend the night doing?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Where are we gonna be sleeping?"

Weevil pondered over this for a moment. "We can always reside in my room… if you don't mind sleeping on the floor; I'm _not_ sharing a bed with you."

"Sounds fine with me, but I better be warm." Rex frowned warningly. "I can _not_ sleep when I'm cold."

"I'll keep that in mind, cold-blooded lizard." A small smile lit Weevil's face up as he dried his hands on a clean towel hung up by the fridge. "Go get your belongings; I'll be in my room preparing a sleeping bag for you."

Rex nodded wordlessly and the two walked towards the staircases, Rex going downstairs to retrieve his bag of stuff for the night while Weevil went upstairs to retreat to his room. The almost overflowing bag caught Rex's eye immediately, and he grabbed the item as quickly as he could, hopping up the stairs to meet back up with Weevil.

Rex walked into Weevil's room to find the bug duelist sitting at his desk, eyeing his ant farm. "I heard you come in." He called without turning his head. "Don't even think about trying to scare me."

"Wasn't gonna." Rex retorted playfully, dropping his bags down on the carpet.

"I have some homework to do." Weevil stated. "So, if it's not too much to ask of your troglodyte brain, could you be quiet while I work on finishing this up? The faster I get done the better."

"Weevil you ask too much of me." Rex feigned being hurt, tackling the bed as he wrestled with the blankets. Weevil cast a curious glance Rex's way, shaking his head as he saw his friend tangling himself up in the covers.

"Don't mess my bed up too bad, I have to sleep there." He called, smiling softly at nothing.

"I do what I want." The brunette responded, sticking out his tongue.

"Not in my house you don't, dino-brain."

* * *

The next hour and a half was spent like this; Weevil working on his homework and Rex drifting in and out of consciousness. Weevil finally called out "Done!", waking Rex up from a particularly nice slumber about ice cream sandwiches. Heavy lavender bangs covered Rex's eyes, and he removed his cap momentarily so he could shuffle his bangs out of his field of vision.

Weevil happened to gaze over at Rex now, watching him curiously as he fumbled with his hair. "You know, you should leave your cap off more often, dino-brain. You look better without it."

"I wouldn't exactly be Rex Raptor without the red hat." The brunette called in response. "It's like, my identity or something."

"You're a dumbass, Rex. You're still the same dino-brain you are with the cap on. But you look less homeless with it off."

The brunette shot a glare at his friend, too tired to truly take offense to his words. "Fine. But you owe me one, Bug-boy; I don't normally take my hat off for _anybody_."

"I feel so lucky." Weevil smirked, only a hint of sarcasm adorning his voice. "Anyways, I'm done with the work I was supposed to do – what do you want to do now?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're the guest, and I was always taught to be polite to guests."

"Alright… hm…" Rex bit at his thumbnail, a subconscious gesture. Weevil went to turn on the radio, earning a country station in reward. Rex scrunched his nose up at the violins. "Well first you can turn the station…"

"What do you usually like to listen to?"

"You know what I listen to."

"Besides metal, dumbass, I refuse to listen to that."

"Fine." Rex sighed. "I know about every song that comes on 70's and 80's radio."

"What station's that?"

Rex got up from the bed, sauntering over to where Weevil was fumbling with his radio. "Let me work the dial, I can find it in a snap."

Weevil moved out of Rex's way, and the older boy began messing with the dial of the radio, stopping immediately when 'Big Shot' came blaring through the speakers. "Perfect!"

Weevil listened to the song for a moment before turning to Rex inquisitively. "I thought you were a metal contender. You listen to this sort of stuff too?"

Rex nodded. "I don't just listen to metal. It's my favorite by far, but this general era comes in at a second. It's all about the 70's and 80's, man."

"It's better than metal, that's for sure."

"Opinions, opinions, Bug-boy."

"Weevil!"

The chorus to the song came on, and Rex proceeded to whip his hair back and forth to the beat of the song, Weevil laughing in response as brunette hair lashed in every which direction. "You look ridiculous!"

Rex ceased snapping his head back and forth momentarily, brushing all his hair back with his hand and parting it the way his bangs naturally went. Lavender bangs brushed away from his forehead; a rare sight indeed for the boy. "Naw. I look hot."

Rex smiled and walked back to Weevil's bed, sitting on the floor so his back rested against the side of the bed. Weevil hesitated a moment before getting up from his chair, sitting on the floor so he faced Rex.

"Howdy, Weeves."

"Hello. Have you found out what you wanted to do yet?"

Rex gave a small smirk. "You."

Blue eyes blinked behind thick spectacles, cheeks blaring red with sudden embarrassment. "W-what?!"

"Nyehehe! I'm just kidding."

"Y-you better be… I understand you're a constant horn-dog but even _you_ wouldn't move that fast… right?"

Rex shrugged. "Not with someone like you; I've finally figured you out."

Weevil cocked his head in curiosity, strands of aqua hair falling to his shoulders as he gazed up inquisitively at Rex. "What do you mean?"

"You can't be rushed into things." Rex worked now at fixing his hair; his brunette hair was wild and untamed by being lashed to the song on the radio. "It overwhelms you."

"Well… yeah, I guess that's right…"

Rex gave a small, subconscious smile. "I kinda want to play a game."

"A game? You mean like Spyro? We played that earlier, Rex, I don't think we should go and play that _now…_"

"No, different sorts of games." Rex shook his head. "Umm… what's there to play?"

"… Board games?"

"No, Weeves." Rex shook his head. "I mean like… like… truth or dare!"

"We're _not_ playing truth or dare." Weevil shook his head immediately, hair wildly whipping back and forth against his forehead. "I-I don't trust you."

Rex laughed. "What, worried I won't play nice?"

"I-I'm worried about what a giant horn-dog you'll be…"

"Weevil, I _just_ got through saying that you got overwhelmed when you were rushed into things… I wouldn't dare you to do anything really weird, if that's what you're worried about."

"T-that's exactly what I'm worried about!" Weevil pouted, crossing his arms. "Surely there's something better for us to play?"

"If we played I-Spy, everything would be 'I spy with my little eye, something beginning with _bugs.'_ I think that's out of the question."

"Oh hush…"

"I don't think you have a closet…"

"Why would we need a closet?" Weevil began cautiously, obviously worried about whatever answer Rex could possibly have.

Rex gave a naughty smirk. "Seven Minutes in Heaven."

"A-ah! Rex no, stop thinking with your dick!"

The brunette laughed. "I was kidding; if you're worried about truth or dare then I'm sure as hell not gonna force you into a closet."

"Is there anything _else_?"

"Not really…"

Weevil's lip quivered. "How am I sure I could trust you with truth or dare then, if we were to play that…?"

Rex shrugged neutrally. "Trust is your own thing, bud. Not mine."

The aqua-haired boy sighed in defeat. "Promise you're not gonna make me do something really weird or creepy…?"

"Promise."

"Promise you're not gonna make me reveal anything really embarrassing…?"

"Promise."

Weevil hesitated. "Then… fine, I guess we can play."

"Alright." Rex nodded. "You go first?"

"Truth or dare…?"

"Truth."

The bug duelist pushed his glasses further up his nose, signaling deep thinking. "You said you were expelled from your previous high-school… why?"

"I broke a kid's nose when he asked me to get out of his way." Rex responded, only a slight pause in his words as he frowned at the memory. Thinking back, it probably wasn't the dino-lover's shining moment; though in all honesty if he had the choice to go back and rethink his actions he wouldn't have done anything differently.

"Really? Rex nodded in response and Weevil sighed in disapproval. "Violence never solves anything, Rex. Your turn."

"Violence solved Yugi getting off your case." Rex chuckled smartly. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

The brunette frowned as he figured exactly what he wanted to ask – something that had been bugging him since the boy first laid eyes on the pretty-in-pastels duelist. "Do you like Espa?"

"W-what?!" Big blue eyes blinked in surprise. "What in the hell kind of question is that? Espa's a great friend, but if you're implying I think of him romantically, you can forget it!"

Rex nodded and smiled in satisfaction. "Good. Your turn."

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"It's not like you to play it safe, Raptor." Weevil teased. "How come you hate Espa so much? Are you jealous?"

There was a thick band of silence that lasted about ten seconds between the two boys as Rex bit at his thumbnail. "Yeah… yeah, I'm jealous."

"Why?"

"Only one truth per round, Weeves."

The blue-haired boy narrowed his eyes. "Fine. Stubborn Stegosaurus… I'll get it out of you eventually."

"Truth or dare?" Rex smirked.

"Dare."

"Throwing caution to the wind, are we?" Rex chuckled. "Next time Espa asks you to go somewhere with him, I dare you to decline his offer. Tell him you can't make it 'cause you've got plans with me."

"W-what?! Rex, that's rude!"

"So? You're the one who picked dare, Weeves."

"O-oh, you're infuriating. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Quit being so safe!" Weevil frowned in irritation, getting an idea. "Oh! I have one."

"Go on with it."

"Why _do_ you like me? I mean, I'm me… no one's ever really paid me much attention…"

Rex froze. "I… I um…" The brunette's cheeks tinged with a deep pink and he bit at his nail again, eyes darting up to the ceiling in deep thought. "I think I've kinda… always liked you… I mean, you were there for me after Duelist Kingdom, when everyone else in the world had turned their backs on us. We stowawayed on a plane and traveled in a suitcase to _America_, for Ra's sake."

Weevil gave a small smile, looking down at the carpet as Rex continued. "I can't say _why_ I like you… you're a lot that I'm not, in personality and how smart you are and stuff. I guess it kinda seems natural, I dunno?" He shrugged.

"Okay okay, I get the point." Weevil hushed him with a small chuckle. "You can stop now, dino-brain. Don't get mushy."

"Alright, alright."

"Whose turn is it?"

"I think it's mine." Rex bit at his thumbnail. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Alright… have you… thought about it at all? Your answer to if you liked me back or not?"

Hesitation. Both boys remained frozen in place before Weevil nodded. "Yes… I have, actually."

"And?"

"Uh-uh-uh!" Weevil gave a naughty smirk and wagged his index finger at Rex. "What was it you said? Only one truth per round? I believe that's a fair trade. Eye for an eye, so-to-speak."

"Oh, you little…!" Rex puffed out his cheeks and burst into laughter. "You're clever. Should'a seen that coming."

Weevil smiled softly. "Yes, you should have. Alright, my turn. Truth or dare?"

"Hmm… dare."

Weevil tensed up after a moment of thinking, causing Rex to tilt his head in curiosity. The shorter of the two swallowed, licking his lips. He took a deep breath before speaking. "I know what I want you to do for your dare… but I want you to wait until later."

"What?"

"What's there to question in that statement?" Weevil scoffed incredulously. "I mean, I have a dare for you, but I don't wanna give it to you now. I want to save it."

Rex was immediately curious in figuring out what it was Weevil wanted him to do. The bug duelist was stubborn, he knew this – if he asked about his dare he wouldn't get a direct answer. Rex frowned and rubbed at his chin. "Alright, I guess that's fine. We'll save it for later then."

"M'hmm." Weevil nodded subconsciously. "I think that's enough playing for the time being."

"Yup. So… now what?"

Weevil shrugged. "If I turn the radio back up, do you promise not to do anymore stupid dancing?"

Rex chuckled. "No promises, Bug-boy." He teased, smiling softly as Weevil rolled his eyes in response, getting up to turn the music to the radio up. A song Rex didn't recognize came on, something about Africa and raining, and the brunette scrunched his nose up in dissatisfaction. "Turn the channel."

"Are you kidding? Rains Down in Africa is like one of Toto's best songs." Weevil glared softly in response.

"I always thought you hated music. How come you like this stuff all suddenly?"

"S-shut up. I happen to like the softer side of 80's…"

"Pfft. No wonder you like Say You Love Me. Sissy. Besides, Fleetwood Mac was more 70's than 80's." When Weevil's jaw dropped in shock, Rex chuckled. "Only joking, Weevil. But I'm being serious when I said I thought you hated music."

"Music is something I could live without, but I do like this genre. Not everything needs to be god-awful heavy metal like the stuff you listen to…"

"I listen to what I want. Please, Weevil, just turn the station..."

"C'mon Rex…" Blue eyes pouted. "Think of the 80's!"

The brunette gave a throaty chuckle and shook his head, eyes gazing up at the white ceiling. "Fine, keep your gay 80's on."

"Thank you."

Rex rested against the side of the bed again, his head hitting the top of the mattress. "Alright, I can't take it anymore… what's my dare?"

"Not so fast, dino-brain." An index finger waggled as if scolding him. "I'll tell you in due time. In the meanwhile, you'll have to be patient… if you can ever manage that for two minutes…"

"I doubt it… but alright, what the heck. Just don't forget."

"You advise _me_ not to forget something? Pfft, dumb dinosaur… if anyone has a history of forgetting things constantly it's you."

"Yeah… hey, do you have a computer?"

"A computer?" Weevil nodded. "Yeah. It's in the basement. We also have a television there."

"Cool! We should watch a scary movie."

"N-no way. _Last_ time we watched a movie I had to kiss you…"

"Oh c'mon…"

"Nuh uh." Weevil's head shook stubbornly. "Not just yet. Anyways…"

"What even is there for us to do, anyways?"

"I dunno." Weevil shrugged. "To be absolutely honest, I kind of expected us to have more stuff to do…"

The brunette frowned in thinking, hand slipping under his cap to scratch at his brunette hair. "You said you had a computer, right? Let's go see if anyone has suggestions on what to do."

"W-what? Use the internet?" Weevil scoffed. "I'm not talking to a bunch of strangers to find out how to occupy ourselves for a few hours…"

"We won't go _ask_ them… do you even use the internet?"

Weevil shook his head in response. "Not unless I need to for an assignment or something. I don't see the appeal of going online to talk to a bunch of anonymous people who may or may not be pedophiles stalking others like prey in the savannahs…"

The brunette gawked in response, jaw dropping slightly as he processed in this information. "You have a computer but you don't _use _it? What kind of logic is that! The computer's so much fun! And you don't _just_ go on to talk to other people… besides, only like 5% of the internet is weird pedo people; I've met some really cool friends over the internet."'

"Yes, and they're probably all snug tight in that 5%." Weevil retorted teasingly. "Besides, knowing _you_, there's only one thing you'd use your computer for, and I don't wish to get any viruses because you searched up porn."

"W-what? Weevil you simple-minded nerd!" Rex stood up from the floor, lending a hand down to the spectacled boy. Weevil grasped his hand after only a moment of staring at it like it was a strange foreign object, pulling himself up off the ground. "I don't use my computer just for porn…"

"'Just for'." Weevil snorted in laughter, leading the way down the hall to the basement. To Rex's relief, he dropped the subject. "We'll probably just find a bunch of advice sites for what girls would do at a sleepover, anyways... females attend those much more than males do."

Rex shrugged. "There has to be some good source we can find." The boys hopped down the stairs gracelessly, turning to head to the basement.

The two entered the room once more, Weevil pointing thoughtlessly to the computer resting in the corner of the room. "It's not turned on right now, seeing as how I never use it, so you'll have to boot it up."

Rex nodded and Weevil retreated to a couch momentarily, lazily watching as Rex sat down and proceeded to press the on switch. The computer booted to life and small whirring noises came from a printer sitting on the desk next to it. Rex sat bored for a moment, head resting against his propped up arm until the login screen came on. "Hey Weeves, what's your password?"

Weevil turned his head lazily from a magazine about exotic insects. "InsectQueen8, capital I and Q."

"Gods, that's so like you." Rex chuckled to himself as he punched in the password, hunt-and-pecking against the keyboard. Weevil gazed at his unsophisticated method of typing, twitching his mouth into a curious pout.

"The hell are you doing, dino-brain? You type like an idiot too."

"Oh hush, maybe I'm not so good a typer. Bite me."

"The proper term is typist, Rex. And you've got that right; you're about as good a typist as you are a duelist."

"I'm a great duelist!" Rex barked back, eyes glued to the keys as he glanced around for each one individually.

"Cut-rate."

"You're not much better."

Weevil frowned as he flipped through the pages to his magazine, pausing as he viewed a two-page spread focusing on an Eastern Black Swallowtail. "Yeah right. My Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth could beat any of your ridiculous dinosaurs to a pulp."

"If that's true, then why did Red Saurus cream ol' Killer Moth in that movie we went to see?"

"Because the writers were simple troglodytes like you." Weevil cooed affectionately, turning the magazine so he could get a vertical view of the butterfly's shimmery ebony wings.

"Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night…" Loud pounding of keys resounded through the basement, a tell-tale sign that Rex was busy asking the internet for help about his current sleepover. "Here, I found something that looks promising."

Weevil lazily got up off the couch, slowly making his way to the dino duelist across the room from him. "Yeah, what is it…" The spectacled boy craned towards the screen, inching his glasses further up his nose as his eyes darted left to right across the screen. "You idiot, this is stuff for a _girl's _sleepover!"

"It is?" Rex muttered nonplussed, focusing more on the information given. A slower reader than Weevil was, it took him a moment to locate the words 'we're both girls'. He frowned. "Crap. Well, maybe there's still good information on here."

"_'12. Do each other's make up, hair, and nails. This would then be a good time to take your pictures!'_" Weevil quoted, frowning in disapproval. "Yeah, I don't think so. Not tonight, dino-brain, I don't feel like having my hair up in a ponytail."

"Would your hair even… oh, never mind, I didn't know it was for girls." Rex shrugged.

Weevil turned to Rex, quiet for a moment before he chuckled into his hand.

"What?"

"I'm thinking about what you would look like in a ponytail."

"M-me?" Rex gazed up at Weevil. "I never put my hair up like that! That's what girls do!"

"You're not exactly the most masculine boy I've ever seen, Rex." Weevil chuckled harshly. "I bet you'd look like a chick with your hair up!"

"Yeah well you're not gonna find out tonight." Rex pouted, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. "At least my haircut's somewhat practical. I don't even know _what_ you've got going on there, but it doesn't scream manly either."

"T-there is nothing feminine about a bowl-cut, Rex!" Weevil growled defensively, hands resting atop his mop of aqua hair.

"Yeah." Rex snorted. "Nothing masculine about it either."

"D-don't make me kick you where it hurts, Raptor." Weevil puffed his cheeks out, ears burning a furious shade of red under his hair.

Before Rex could open his mouth to respond, a low rumble caught the silence and the brunette looked down towards his stomach, eyebrow quirked curiously as he let out a soft laugh of embarrassment. "Guess ol' King Rex's hungry."

"How on earth could you even _think_ about food right now? I knew you were always hungry, but that's ridiculous!"

"Nonsense." Rex got up and trudged up the stairs without further explanation. Weevil paused, not sure if he wanted to follow, when the brunette came back downstairs with a sack of Goldfish and Hot Cheetos. "It's always feeding time for this dino!"

"Where did you…?"

"My supply bag." Rex ripped open the Goldfish, grabbing a handful and shoving the contents into his mouth. Crunching filled the air and crumbs littered the floor around as Rex sat back down, hand flocking back to the bag at almost constant intervals to retrieve another handful of cheese-flavored crackers.

Weevil's nose crinkled in disgust. "You eat like a dinosaur. Graceless and disgusting. Please at least have some dignity while you're eating at my house, and you're making a mess!"

"Stop whining." Rex spoke with a full mouth as he sat back down in the chair by the computer, offering the bag of Goldfish to Weevil without another word. The aqua-haired boy shook his head in response and the bag was pulled away from him. "Suit yourself."

"How on earth are you so skinny when you eat a ton of junk food 24/7?" Weevil wondered, more to himself than to Rex. He reached down and gingerly poked at Rex's side, fingertip meeting with a flat stomach under the brunette's shirt. "You're like flesh and bone, no substance!"

"I'm not that scrawny." Rex growled defensively in response. "I'm strong enough to pick you up, but then again that's not saying much."

"Have you ever thought about getting a fuller physique?" Weevil mused, poking once more at Rex's side. The older boy gazed at him curiously. "I'm sure you could accomplish it."

"I'm not all skin and bone, yanno." Rex slipped off his school jacket, white t-shirt underneath revealing itself. He looked down at his arms and twisted them gently so he could get a better look at them. "There's like, a little bit of muscle there."

"Hardly."

"When you fight a lot like me, you get a good workout." Rex grinned proudly, shoving another handful of Goldfish into his mouth.

"Maybe that's why you're so skinny; brawling with other kids burns off all that junk food you consume."

"I'm not skinny."

"Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night." Weevil shoved his hand into the bag, grabbing out a small handful of fish-shaped crackers. He picked one up and popped it into his mouth.

"You eat like a girl."

"And you eat like a pig."

"Nuh-uh. I've seen pigs eat. They shove their nose into their troughs and make squeal noises."

"I'll repeat that again – you eat like a pig."

Rex frowned before placing the bag to his lips, opening his mouth as he tilted his head and the bag back. Goldfish poured from the opening and Rex sloppily caught them, crackers occasionally spilling onto the floor. Weevil squealed in shock, stooping down to pick up the discarded crackers.

"_That's_ what a pig eats like." Rex smirked through a full mouth, words distorted as he crunched through his fill.

"You're insufferable." Weevil frowned, glaring up at Rex. He threw a Goldfish he picked up at the boy, suppressing laughter when it got caught in his brunette curls and the boy failed to notice.

"I know." Rex smiled, reaching back into his bag.

"So now that we've wasted our time with the useless task of turning to the internet for help, what do you want to do?"

"Doesn't matter to me, I'm not picky." Rex shrugged thoughtfully. "I mean, it doesn't really matter as long as we have fun, right?"

"Who said anything about fun? I'm just waiting until you get tired enough to pass out."

"And who said anything about sleeping?" A naughty smirk flashed across Rex's face. "I'm planning on keeping you up all night, Weeves."

"N-no you're not! Don't you dare even think about it, Raptor!"

"I already have." The smirk faded to a satisfied smile. "Don't get so riled up."

"I want you quiet and out of my hair by 10 p.m. sharp." Weevil pouted, turning to look at the time. "It's 7:45 right now. So we still have a few hours before I need to be in bed."

"It's a sleepover, lighten up."

"Yes, it's a sleepover on a _weeknight_. We have school tomorrow and I want to actually be there on time."

"Do you usually walk to school?"

Weevil nodded. "Yes, my parents are always gone to work by the time I wake up."

"Then you're lucky, 'cause you have a street-legal driver by your side." Rex flashed a proud grin. "You can sleep in; driving will probably shave forty minutes your schedule."

"How would you know how long it takes to walk from my house to the school?"

"Because I walk to school too, and my house is just a little bit shorter distance from the school than yours is."

"Hmph. Good enough. And you promise you'll let me ride with you? None of that 'See you at school' stuff where you drive off before I can get in the car…?"

"Why would I do that?" Rex frowned. "It doesn't matter who you are, that's a dick move. Of course I won't do that."

"Good." Weevil gave a satisfied nod. "Back to the topic at hand… what would you like to do with our two remaining hours?"

"I'm gonna go up to your room and change, I'm tired of being in uniform." Rex got up from the chair.

"Call me when you're done changing, and I'll go change too."

"M'kay." Rex nodded subconsciously and made his ways to the stairs, hopping up two at a time. He absentmindedly ran his fingers through his hair, lifting his lavender bangs off of his face. As he turned to walk up the second set of stairs, Rex cast a glance down to the lower level of the house, viewing it over the balcony as he walked towards Weevil's room. "It really is a pretty house." He muttered to himself as he closed Weevil's bedroom door behind him.

Rex immediately threw his cobalt jacket off, working next on unbuckling his pants. The stubborn article of clothing slid down his legs and he stepped out of it, piling his clothes together. The brunette turned and found his red cap, throwing it atop the pile carefully.

"Better get my clothes…" He sighed softly, thinking aloud. He trudged swiftly across the room and opened his large bag of supplies, shuffling through bags and bags of food until his hand met with soft fabric of a stormy-blue t-shirt. Rex pulled the shirt out from its imprisonment under layers of food, unfolding the shirt. Lips twitched into a soft, sentimental smile and the shirt went up over his head as Rex pulled it on. The shirt itself was about a size too big, and it hung loosely around his slightly lanky physique. His right hand darted back to the bag and he felt around, stopping only when he felt material he was sure belonged to a male's version of sweatpants. The pants stuck stubbornly underneath the layers of chip-bags and various other types of food, and numerous items spilling out onto the carpet as Rex coaxed the heather-gray sweatpants through the mess. He finally freed them and eased them on, finger curling around the white drawstring.

"Can I come in now?" A knock to the door startled the brunette. "I kind of want to change."

"Come in, I'm done." Rex sauntered lazily to the radio, which was blaring white static. Weevil opened the door and did a double take at Rex wearing sweatpants, bursting into laughter.

"You look ridiculous!"

"No I don't. I look fine."

"Yeah, if by 'fine' you mean 'like a girl.' What kind of self-respecting guy wears sweatpants, anyways?"

"This self-respecting guy, that's who."

"Do you think you could leave…? I'm kind of getting ready to change here…"

Rex cast a glare at the boy, though the hard look deteriorated when he caught sight of Weevil lifting his shirt halfway off his frame. "Mmn – no, I'm too lazy to leave."

"Rex you damn horndog! Just get out…?"

Rex's head shook in defiance, arms crossing stubbornly on his chest. "Nope."

"Oh fine then, stubborn Stegosaurus." Weevil spat in defeat, tossing his shirt roughly towards the bed. Rex averted his gaze, giving the spectacled boy a small amount of privacy as he fiddled with the radio settings.

"Can you turn the station to something good?" Weevil said suddenly, nose crinkled up at the white static noise.

"Yeah, on it." Rex obeyed as he turned the dial.

_'Cause I'm a genie in a bo—_

_ You're a hot mess! And I'm falli—_

_ Stop, children, what's tha—_

_It's not very easy, living all alone. _Rex froze, hand resting over the dial.

_My friends try and tell me, find a man of my own._

_But each time I try, I just break down and cry_

"What?" Weevil sputtered, turning to stare at the radio as if it were speaking Latin. "Why Whitney Houston…?"

"S-shut up, let it play." Rex waved a hand swiftly at Weevil to quiet him. "I-I haven't heard this song in ages. Besides, it's from the 80's…"

"You _know_ this song?"

Rex nodded. "This song always makes me feel… soft."

Weevil tugged an oversized t-shirt of his own on and walked over to Rex, a mixture of curiosity and suspicion clouding over his vibrant blue eyes. "Soft?"

_Cause I'd rather be at home feeling blue_

_So I'm saving all my love for you!_

"Like… want to be romantic and stuff. Girly stuff like that." Rex's nose scrunched up at admitting it, preparing himself for Weevil's onslaught of insults.

"_You_ actually feel romantic sometimes?" Weevil gawked, jaw dropping slightly. Rex was caught by surprise by the lack of laughter. "That's almost hard to believe, dino-brain… almost…"

Rex nodded and gave a soft smile, turning to fully face Weevil. "Yeah… sometimes. This song's a sure-fire way to get me fluffy-feeling…"

_You said to be patient, just wait a little longer_

_But that's just an old fantasy_

Weevil stared up at Rex, blue eyes shrouded in emotions Rex couldn't quite name. He tilted his head slightly in confusion at the other boy, a small smile crossing his lips as he softened for the boy.

Weevil shuffled closer to Rex, to the point where their chests were almost touching. "It's rare that you're ever… romantic… I should take advantage of this while I can…"

"Hm?" Half-lidded eyes met the blue-eyed boy's watchful stare. "Whaddya mean…?"

"I… remember that dare I had in store?"

"M'hmm…" Rex nodded slowly. "I do…"

"Feel like doing it?"

_I've got to get ready, just a few minutes more_

_Gonna get that old feeling when you walk through the door_

_'Cause tonight is the night, for feeling alright_

_We'll be making love the whole night through_

"Depends… what is it…?"

_So I'm saving all my love_

_Yes I'm saving all my love_

Silence for but a moment. A deep breath in anticipation from Weevil mixed with him moving up towards Rex even further, their noses almost touching.

"Kiss me."

_Yes I'm saving all my love for you._

"You… trust me?"

"… More than anything…"

Emotion more soft and romantic than lust-filled consumed Rex entirely, and before he could even get a read on his own reactions the boy had edged forward and closed the space in between his and Weevil's lips, capturing them in between his own. A response of mild shock, Weevil's hands went to rest at Rex's shoulders, and the shorter boy craned his head forward, obviously nervous as his eyes fluttered tightly shut. Weevil broke the kiss after a moment, face coated in a fine sheen of red as he held himself at arm's length from Rex.

"I…"

"Don't ruin it." Weevil frowned, crashing his index finger gently against Rex's lips.

"So I guess that means now'd be a shitty time to ask if this means ya liked me back…"

Weevil laughed in spite of himself. "What do _you_ think the answer is? No, dino-brain, I can't stand your guts… of _course_ this means I like you back."

The boy crashed into Rex's chest abruptly, head resting in between the space of Rex's shoulder and neck. A gentle nuzzle sent Rex's brunette curls crushed against his skin, and as soon as the hug had been initiated it ended with Weevil pushing himself away. Bowl-cut disheveled and glasses slightly askew, Weevil adjusted the spectacles and took on a more hardened demeanor. "Just… don't screw anything up, now that you know that information. If anyone were to accomplish that it'd be _you, _dumb dinosaur…"

Not buying into Weevil's sudden stubborn change of attitude, Rex chuckled passively and released his grip on the smaller boy. "Yeah yeah, I won't… I'm not _that_ dumb…"

"I wouldn't put it past you." A smile broke the hard expression on Weevil's face. "You're a mystery if I've ever seen one."

"I am…"


	10. Update

post/65811194830/where-im-standing-on-dino-dorks-a nd-bug-boys

Okay, so this is where I'm standing on the issue of this fic.

It's been awhile since I've written something and I don't want to quit this fic.

Going on hiatus for a little bit.

This fanfiction is NOT discontinued. Just going to be a little bit before I update it, okay?


End file.
